Shortly after the military-backed government in Myanmar thumbed its nose at the ASEAN chair and denied its request to meet with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the regime in Naypyidaw went one step further and announced that Laos was next on the agenda.
No date was given for the first official visit to an ASEAN country by self-anointed President Min Aung Hlaing in the Global New Light of Myanmar, which said on July 1 that the visit would take place over the “next few days.”
But official scribes across the border had a bit more to say.
The state-run Vientiane Times announced that Min Aung Hlaing would make the trip during July 3-5 “to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Laos and Myanmar,” after an invitation was extended by Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith.
In denying access to Suu Kyi – and rejecting the proof of life campaign that has been launched by her son Kim Aris – and then traveling to Laos in an official capacity, Min Aung Hlaing has neatly driven a wedge into ASEAN, not unlike a lumberjack felling a tree.
