The head of Myanmar’s military junta will be among the international attendees at today’s parade in Moscow marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing departed for Russia on Wednesday, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday, and will attend today’s celebration in Red Square at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the report, the junta chief, who is accompanied by junta Foreign Minister Than Swe and three high-ranking generals, will “hold separate meetings with attendees to the ceremonies.” Somewhat cryptically, the report also said that he will “carry out cementing strategic cooperation measures in friendly relations, economic and security sectors, and other sectors between governments and people of both countries.”
Min Aung Hlaing is one of 29 foreign leaders who will attend the parade, including China’s Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Moscow Times reported. “Other confirmed guests include the leaders of Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Bosnia, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Congo, Myanmar, Cuba, Ethiopia and Equatorial Guinea, as well as traditional Russia allies in Central Asia,” it stated
A Myanmar military unit will also join Russian troops in the ceremonial parade on Red Square, and on April 23, a military parade contingent led by Brig.-Gen. Myo Sat Aung departed for Russia and have since taken part in rehearsals for the parade. Soldiers from 13 foreign countries, including China, Egypt, Vietnam, and several former Soviet republics, will participate in the parade.
The visit will be Min Aung Hlaing’s fifth to Russia since the February 2021 coup, and his second this year, following a state visit in early March during which he met (and praised) Putin at the Kremlin. The frequent visits reflect the increasingly close relations between Moscow and Naypyidaw, which were already friendly prior to the coup but have, since the 2021 coup and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the following year, been pressed together by their alienation from the United States and most of the West.
News of Min Aung Hlaing’s latest trip to Moscow has been accompanied by speculation that he may take the opportunity to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Last month, the junta chief held his first meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit in Thailand, but he has not met Xi in a formal capacity since the coup, even as China has become a more active player in the country’s civil war, particularly in Shan State, abutting the Chinese border.
Over the past year, Beijing has mediated talks between the Myanmar military and the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed groups, which made significant gains in northern Shan State in late 2023 and 2024. Last month, after months of increasing pressure, it forced the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a member of the Alliance, to withdraw from the city of Lashio, the de facto capital of northern Shan State, which the MNDAA seized in August of last year. A Chinese ceasefire monitoring team has since been dispatched to oversee the return of the city to the military’s control.
The Chinese move, designed to prevent the collapse of the military regime and to protect Chinese strategic interests that have been threatened by the civil war, marked one of its most direct interventions in the country’s affairs since the Cold War. China is also in the process of brokering talks between the military administration and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, another member of the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
According to The Irrawaddy, Min Aung Hlaing “may attempt to meet with Xi while in Moscow, using the pretext of personally thanking him for China’s relief aid following the March 28 earthquake disaster,” although no meeting has yet been announced.