Four years after Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, the junta remains largely internationally isolated – but it found a sudden and important foothold in Asia this week. Increasingly, some of the region’s most powerful leaders are extending diplomatic recognition to General Min Aung Hlaing, offering him a platform on the global stage despite accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet in Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit last week, where Min Aung Hlaing hobnobbed with dictators and democratically-elected leaders alike. The junta hailed the “successful and fruitful” trip as proof of growing “international recognition”.
The general held bilateral talks with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, discussed cooperation with Xi, and was photographed alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin and leaders from more than 20 countries. For a man largely shunned by the international community since ousting Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and igniting a brutal civil war, it was a striking moment of rehabilitation.
China and Russia have long shielded the regime diplomatically and militarily. What is surprising now, however, is the willingness of India – the world’s largest democracy – to extend public recognition to Myanmar’s generals. India’s engagement jars with its democratic identity, and its self-styled role as a counterweight to autocracies in Asia.
On Sunday, Modi met Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the SCO summit, and Modi even went as far as to express his hope that the upcoming elections in Myanmar would be "held in a fair and inclusive manner involving all stakeholders".
The election Modi refers to will be an entirely stage-managed affair, given the military rounded up and jailed most of the country’s civilian leadership when it carried out its coup, as well as thousands of supporters and volunteers from its most popular political party. The Independent released a documentary at the end of last year putting a spotlight on this episode and how Suu Kyi lost the support of the international community in the lead-up to the coup.
The election, the junta says, will be held in stages in December 2025 and January 2026. Further dates may be declared but cannot yet due to security risks, the junta says – an implicit admission that it still faces a fight for control of large swathes of the country.
Myanmar’s government-in-exile, the National Unity Government (NUG), condemned diplomatic engagement with Min Aung Hlaing, saying those acknowledging his sham election were “indirectly endorsing the military’s war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
“This sham election will not be free and fair. What is certain, however, is that it will be a blood-stained election,” U Nay Phone Latt, spokesperson for the NUG, told The Independent. “Meeting with the military leader in this manner is completely against the will and stance of the people of Myanmar.”
The NUG, which represents the elected administration ousted by the coup, accuses the junta of using images from such encounters as propaganda, while warning that the military will commit “targeted human rights violations and brutal atrocities” in the run-up to its staged polls.
According to Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, the junta's survival hinges on three pillars: “Money, weapons, and legitimacy.”
Indian prime minister Modi’s meeting with the general and his comments about the election risk providing the kind of legitimacy the junta needs to stay in power, he tells The Independent.
“India has expressed hope for ‘fair and inclusive’ elections in Myanmar. But the brutal fact is that tens of thousands of these stakeholders are political prisoners, languishing behind bars, including Myanmar’s democratically elected president and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
“You cannot have a fair and inclusive election when political opponents are arrested, detained, tortured and executed.”
China pledged for the first time to support Myanmar’s efforts to become a full member of the SCO during Xi’s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing in Tianjin.
The Chinese leader discussed “opposing foreign interference in Myanmar’s politics, China’s positive stance and future actions for the country’s stability and peace,” the National Defence and Security Council said in a statement.
This was general Min Aung Hlaing’s second visit to China and his second meeting with Xi since the 2021 coup. Unlike their earlier encounter in Moscow in May on the sidelines of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, this time Xi personally invited him to attend the SCO Summit and the subsequent military parade on Wednesday, giving him a prominent spot alongside leaders from more than 20 nations.
“China’s support for Myanmar’s bid to join the SCO is yet another example of its efforts to bolster the junta’s legitimacy. Let us keep reminding the world: the junta is illegal, it is criminal, and it does not deserve to be represented at any multilateral organisation,” Benedict Rogers, senior director of the human rights NGO Fortify Rights, tells The Independent.
He says there is a very serious risk that engagement of the kind we have seen recently risks wrongfully legitimising the junta.
“Let us never forget that this junta is completely illegitimate. It seized power in an illegal coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government. It has jailed the country’s legitimate leaders, arresting and imprisoning almost 30,000 political prisoners over the past four years. And it is conducting a war against the people of Myanmar with airstrikes, ground attacks and massacres that have killed thousands and displaced an estimated four million people,” he says.
He said the regime should be sanctioned, prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – not given a red carpet welcome by a country that repeatedly professes to be a force for global peace.
India’s position is tangled in contradictions. As the world’s largest democracy, New Delhi’s courtship of Myanmar’s junta has invited particular scrutiny. Modi’s handshake with general Min Aung Hlaing was more than just a diplomatic gesture – it symbolised the hard pragmatism of a neighbour where fears over border security and rivalry with China routinely trump democratic solidarity.
Yet this approach carries reputational risks. “India needs to seriously reconsider its position. It has the potential to be not only a moral leader in the region but a serious counterpoint to the axis of authoritarianism led by China and Russia,” Rogers said. “It does not belong in Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin’s club of tyrants.”
He underscores that “embracing Min Aung Hlaing and his blood-stained, criminal junta only bodes ill for those who do so, and for us all.”
UN investigators have gathered evidence of systematic torture, summary executions of fighters and suspected informers, the detention of children as young as two in place of their parents, and airstrikes deliberately targeting schools, homes and hospitals.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) – covering a period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025 – found evidence of “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed” in Myanmar with an increasing frequency since the 2021 military coup.
Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, says any engagement with Min Aung Hlaing undercuts crucial efforts by Myanmar activists to pressure and isolate an individual who the ICC prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant against for crimes against humanity.
“Instead of shaking hands with an alleged war criminal, leaders should be publicly condemning the junta’s farcical ‘elections’ and coordinating with other concerned governments, particularly regional actors, to deny the junta any technical assistance or support.”
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