Nobody pays attention to Myanmar any more

Malaysia has begun repatriating people who had fled the civil war back to Myanmar. On Tuesday, around 1,500 Burmese citizens, including women and children, were put on board three ships sent from Naypyidaw and returned to the country. This is the first phase of a programme that could involve up to five thousand people: Kuala Lumpur maintains that the repatriations are voluntary, but the UNHCR and several human rights organisations have expressed serious concerns. The issue, however, is not merely the fate of the Burmese people, but the political signal behind it. This is because Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the coup in 2021 that plunged the country into civil war, has now once again become a negotiating partner with whom governments in the region are engaging, and he is due to visit Kuala Lumpur next month.

Yet, formally speaking, Malaysia continues to state that it does not recognise the new Burmese government and that it stands by the ASEAN peace plan. But the diplomatic facade constructed by Min Aung Hlaing in recent months is having the desired effect. Following his trip to China, his visit to India and his visits to Laos and Cambodia, the junta leader-turned-president has managed to bring Naypyidaw back into the regional diplomatic fold. In June, Xi Jinping had publicly backed the new Burmese leadership and cooperation with the country. The rest, meanwhile, is fading from view. In the global division taking shape under Donald Trump, Myanmar is increasingly an Asian – and therefore a Chinese – issue. And the Burmese conflict, one of the most devastating wars in contemporary Asia, thus risks becoming nothing more than background noise. Just two days ago in Kyauktaw, in Rakhine State, an air strike attributed to the Burmese army against a market killed at least 49 people and injured 58. The Arakan Army, which controls the area, accuses the junta of deliberately targeting civilians.