Malaysia held separate talks with Myanmar’s junta and opposition
Last Updated on May 22, 2025 10:18 pm
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that separate talks with Myanmar’s junta leader and key opposition figures have yielded results, paving the way for the first direct contact between the two sides engaged in a long and destructive civil war.
Last month, Anwar met with Junta chairman Min Aung Hlaing behind closed doors in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Malaysian politician had online discussions with the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) the same day, reports Reuters.
The NUG consists of the remains of an elected government headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which was overthrown in a coup masterminded by Min Aung Hlaing in 2021.
According to two people with direct information, all parties were aware of the interaction, highlighting Min Aung Hlaing’s readiness to participate in peace initiatives even though she had labeled the government-in-exile “terrorist.”
“We do engage separately, but I think it’s time for them to talk,” Anwar told reporters in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya on Wednesday. “I mean, the people in Myanmar have to decide for themselves.”
When Reuters called for comment, a junta spokesman did not answer.
According to NUG spokesman Nay Phone Latt, the shadow government would be amenable to negotiations with the military provided it accepted six requirements.
These include the establishment of a transitional justice system and the development of a new federal democratic union governed by a new constitution that excludes the military from politics.
“If Myanmar’s military agrees to that, we will have a dialogue with military authorities regarding the termination of the coup and peaceful transition of power,” he told Reuters.
The military, which has controlled Myanmar for the majority of its post-independence history, is unlikely to agree to those terms.
However, Anwar’s offer, which was started on behalf of the Southeast Asian regional bloc Asean, which he currently chairs, is the first time the military leadership seems open to a discussion since the February 2021 coup that rocked Myanmar.
Thousands of people have been dead, nearly 3.5 million have been displaced, and the Southeast Asian country’s economy has been severely damaged by the bloodshed.
The junta has been forced to leave border regions and progressively enclose the territory it controls in the central lowlands by an armed opposition made up of both long-standing ethnic armies and recently created resistance organizations that have emerged after the coup.
According to a diplomatic source, Malaysian officials have started reaching out to certain armed groups in Myanmar, although they did not elaborate.
Anwar made a public effort to get a truce extension in Bangkok in order to assist the delivery of humanitarian relief after an earthquake on March 28 killed over 3,800 people, primarily in central Myanmar.
However, four people with knowledge of the talks said the leader also used the opportunity to try to establish the framework for a larger peace process.
His plan is expected to take centre stage at the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur next week, with bloc members holding intense discussions on the crisis in advance of the event.
His push was “the first serious attempt at engagement” by the bloc, according to Anwar.
He declared, “We have to move beyond that,” on Wednesday.
Since the coup in 2021, Asean has advocated for a halt to bloodshed, promoting the “Five Point Consensus” peace plan, which has not advanced much and has excluded Myanmar’s ruling generals from the bloc’s summits.
According to three sources, backroom work for the Bangkok talks had begun prior to the earthquake, but the catastrophe gave Anwar the chance to speak with Min Aung Hlaing personally about humanitarian matters. Min Aung Hlaing has been excluded from Asean meetings for almost four years.
“A truce is necessary to accomplish the humanitarian exercise, which is significant in and of itself. Additionally, a short-term ceasefire will pave the ground for potential future paths for peace and reconciliation, according to George Yeo, a former foreign minister of Singapore who now serves as Anwar’s adviser.
Election plans
At first, the NUG had urged “utmost caution” for any unilateral interaction with the junta head and had rejected the Anwar-Min Aung Hlaing meetings in Bangkok.
The junta has extended the ceasefire that was first agreed upon to facilitate humanitarian relief after the earthquake, but it has continued a lethal military assault, even in areas ravaged by the earthquake, after the Bangkok negotiations.
This week, Asean Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn said it was unclear who had broken the ceasefire and declined to comment on the military’s ongoing onslaught.
The regional bloc must pressure Myanmar’s warring factions to adhere to the truce in the near future.