Has Washington's long-standing policy of isolating the military regime in Myanmar now changed? The revelation that a top official in the Trump administration met its leader Min Aung Hlaing last month, and the removal of some business figures from the US sanctions list, suggests that it has. Until now, the US had had very little official contact with the regime following the 2021 coup, when Myanmar's military ousted democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
More recently, it had applied a series of targeted sanctions against those judged to be supporting the junta. The meeting on 15 and 16 September was with US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Michael Vance, and it took place in Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw. Its ostensible focus was to secure the release of Adam Castillo, a US citizen who had been detained in June over a dispute with the local American Chamber of Commerce.
But Vance was the most senior US official to meet Min Aung Hlaing since he seized power, and they almost certainly discussed other matters of mutual interest. Vance is also known to have met Burmese officials in Tokyo in June, again in Tokyo this month, and to have met representatives of the groups opposing military rule. Signs of a shift in US policy towards Myanmar, though, go back to July last year, at the height of President Donald Trump's tariff war.
That was when Min Aung Hlaing, along with other leaders in the region, received a personal letter from the US president informing him that his country's shattered economy was about to be hit by, in Myanmar's case, 40% tariffs. Other countries reeled in shock at the punitive levies imposed on their vital trade with a country they had once seen as a friend and ally. He replied immediately to express his "sincere appreciation for this encouraging invitation to continue participating in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World", mimicking Trump's hyperbolic phrasing and eccentric capitalisation.
"It is with great esteem that I wish to acknowledge Your Excellency's strong leadership in guiding your country toward national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot." This was not just a dictator's hunch that flattery might be the best way to win favours from Trump. Min Aung Hlaing's coup, and the civil war it ignited, had turned him into an international pariah. His regime was largely unrecognised.
He was accused of being a war criminal, with cases lodged against him at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. Aside from Russia and, more recently, China, he was shunned by other governments. Yet here was the US president addressing him just like any other president or prime minister, as "Your Excellency.
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