Myanmar’s junta signalled changes in the military’s leadership ahead of the country’s annual show of force on Friday (March 27, 2026), potentially clearing the way for defence chief Min Aung Hlaing to become President.

Tanks and military trucks laden with rocket launchers and mobile field guns trundled through the streets as thousands of soldiers marched for Armed Forces Day in the capital, Naypyidaw, where Min Aung Hlaing made his yearly speech to rally morale.

The armed forces “reaffirmed its pledge to support the government legitimately elected by the people, with the aim of strengthening and sustaining the multi-party democracy system”, he said.

Min Aung Hlaing has ruled by diktat since ousting the hugely popular government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 — detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dissolving her party and triggering civil war.

There will be “leadership changes” in the armed forces after the ceremony, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy Soe Win as saying at an official dinner on Thursday (March 26, 2026).

Lawmakers are set to begin the process of selecting a president next week following a walkover victory by pro-military parties earlier this year in elections overseen by the junta.

Under the constitution, Min Aung Hlaing would have to step down from his military post to become President, and Soe Win’s comments reinforce expectations that he will do so.

He is already acting President, but taking the role on a permanent basis would bolster critics who say the transition to a new government is effectively the military transferring power to itself in a civilian disguise.

“Irrespective of who leads,” the armed forces “will continue to follow the guidance of successive leaders, advisors and mentors,” the newspaper cited Soe Win as saying in indirect speech.

Myanmar’s military mythologises itself as the only force protecting the restive nation from disintegration.

The newspaper devoted its front page to the military pageant, with an image of missile launchers before three huge statues of ancient kings that dominate the parade ground.

Marching bands and small submarines atop vehicles emblazoned with the words “Made in Myanmar” paraded past hundreds of spectators as the sun went down on Friday (March 27, 2026), state TV channel MRTV showed.

The Armed Forces Day events have progressively shrunk since 2021, as the military’s ranks have been sapped by the civil war against anti-coup guerrillas and long-active ethnic minority rebel factions.

But attendance appeared to be higher and the show more extravagant at Friday’s parade compared to last year’s event, which fell on the day before a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country, killing thousands.

Forward march

Over the past year, there have been signs the junta is back on the front foot — with a string of moderate victories thanks largely to China-backed truces with ethnic rebels along their shared border.

A Beijing-brokered deal saw the northern city of Lashio returned to the military last spring, after it and its regional command base were captured by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army in a major humiliation.

Another China-sealed ceasefire in October saw the Ta’ang National Liberation Army pull back from central Mandalay region, where it had seized the lucrative ruby mining hub of Mogok.

Both factions previously fought alongside each other and others in an offensive starting in late 2023 that represented the biggest threat to the junta since the coup.

Analysts say neighbouring China’s recent interventions to rein in rebels are a sign Beijing is backing the military establishment to provide some semblance of stability.

While the truces have proven instrumental to the past year of the conflict, violence remains endemic.

Last year witnessed the largest number of military air and drone strikes since the coup, according to monitoring group ACLED, which tallies media reports of violence.

With various armed groups embroiled in the civil war, the conflict is highly compartmentalised and there are regions where the embattled military is surrounded and making its last stand.

While there is no official toll for the conflict, ACLED estimates more than 90,000 people have been killed on all sides.

More than 3.7 million people are displaced, the United Nations has said, while about half the country’s population lives in poverty.

Published – March 27, 2026 10:16 pm IST

Officials of the Union Election Commission prepare to count votes at a polling station, during the first phase of general election, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on December 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Officials of the Union Election Commission prepare to close a polling station after the votes were counted, during the first phase of the general election, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on December 28, 2025
| Photo Credit: AP

Volker Turk. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The upcoming election in Myanmar will be a “sham” and will not help resolve the ongoing civil strife in the country that began with the coup by the military junta on February 1, 2021, said a leading member of a rebel outfit that has been fighting the junta for at least three years.

In an exclusive interview with The Hindu here, Yaw Mang, spokesperson of the Chin Brotherhood, based in Mindat township of Chin State bordering Mizoram, urged the Indian government to assist the people of Chin State with the supply of essential items such as food, medicine and telephone connectivity.

“The December 2025 election does not mean anything for us. It is like an event that is happening in another planet, which will not matter to us. The junta’s generals may dress up in military uniform or lungis depending on the occasion, but they will not stop the attacks,” said Mr. Mang, claiming that the junta has been receiving support from China in its attacks against ethnic groups. In August, the State Administration Council (military junta) announced that elections will be held in December. The Myanmar election will mark the beginning of a series of three elections in India’s neighbourhood, covering Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

“We are fighting the junta because it is denying administrative and economic rights of our people and trying to grab resources without sharing with us. We would stop fighting if we get half the rights that are enjoyed by the people in Mizoram, across the border,” said Mr. Mang, adding, “We are absolutely in favour of building friendly ties with India.”

Mr. Mang, who was on a rare visit to New Delhi, said the Chin Brotherhood was formed on December 30, 2023, in response to the crackdown by the junta. “Initially, our people attacked the junta’s soldiers without training, which led to casualties on our side. But then, we received support from the Arakan Army, which has been fighting the junta in the Rakhine province, and we learnt from them,” said Mr. Mang, who described that the Chin Brotherhood is not ethnically motivated in its hostility to the Myanmar junta.

“The Myanmar military is mostly made of Bamars (the dominant ethnic group), but we are not opposing them because of their ethnicity,” said Mr. Mang, adding that the Chin Brotherhood fought the junta from November 9, 2024 to December 21, 2024, and liberated Mindat township. The turning point for the Chins of Mindat came just months after the coup, between May 12 and 15, 2021, when the military began attacking civilians who resisted its orders.

“We suffered around 500 casualties, out of which 80 were our soldiers. 420 were injured,” said Mr. Mang. According to Dr. Myo Myint, spokesperson of the National Unity Government (NUG) – the exiled government of Myanmar – the Chin Brotherhood is one of at least 300 Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) that have been resisting the junta since February 2021.

Mr. Mang painted a picture of isolated existence for Mindat township, as the junta has cut electricity supplies and other commercial supply lines for the rebel-held area. As a result, the group has resorted to smuggling techniques through hill streams to obtain essential goods. “We literally have to smuggle books, pencils, paracetamol tablets, sanitary napkins, and other daily necessities through rivers so the junta cannot stop us,” Mr. Mang said. He explained that in the absence of electricity supplies, the Chin Brotherhood relies on solar panels and generators, minimising electricity consumption after sunset.

However, the most important resource for the rebels is internet connectivity, which they currently obtain through Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite network. Starlink is expensive and inconvenient as it does not cover large areas, he added. As an alternative to Starlink, Mr. Mang said, India should help the rebels with mobile phone network. “We can replace expensive Starlink with Indian mobile network if Mizoram’s mobile towers use amplifiers to cover the bordering areas of Myanmar,” said Mr Mang, explaining that charging mobile phones is one of the few functions for which they generate electricity through solar panels.

Published – November 27, 2025 10:37 pm IST

Myanmar’s ruling military junta said that a bridge that was bombed and destroyed by anti-coup armed groups. File
| Photo Credit: AP

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Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Myanmar’s military government will release 5,864 prisoners, including 180 foreigners, under an amnesty marking the Southeast Asian nation’s independence day, state media said on Saturday (January 4, 2025.)

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021, when the military overthrew an elected civilian government and violently suppressed pro-democracy protests, sparking a nationwide armed rebellion.

The junta has said it will hold elections this year, but the plan has been widely condemned by Opposition groups as a sham. Among those still imprisoned by the junta is the country’s former leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 79-year-old is serving a 27-year sentence tied to 14 criminal charges ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption. She denies all the charges, according to her lawyers.

Explainer | Why did the Myanmar military stage a coup?

South East Asian country leaders hold hands during the opening ceremony of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Wednesday (October 9, 2024)
| Photo Credit: AP

Southeast Asian leaders pressed Myanmar’s junta and its opponents on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) to take “concrete action” to stop the bloodshed in the country’s civil war and sought to kickstart faltering diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has tried to no avail to find a negotiated solution to the Myanmar crisis, which has killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes since the military seized power in February 2021.

The crisis dominated the first day of the ASEAN summit in Vientiane, where the disputed South China Sea will also be high on the agenda.

ASEAN leaders held their first face-to-face talks with a senior Myanmar junta representative in more than three years on the first day.

The junta has suffered serious battlefield defeats over the past year during a renewed offensive by ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” that rose up to oppose its coup.

ASEAN leaders condemned attacks on civilians and “urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately halt indiscriminate violence”, according to a draft summit chairman’s statement.

The junta agreed to a “five point consensus” plan with ASEAN to restore peace weeks after it ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, but instead pushed ahead with a bloody crackdown on opposition to its rule.

After condemning Myanmar for ignoring the five-point plan at summits in 2022 and 2023, the leaders insisted again on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) it was still their “main reference” to deal with the crisis, the chairman’s draft statement said.

How to enforce it remains unclear.

“We are trying to find ways to move forward, because we have to admit that although the five points have been there… we have not been very successful in actually changing the situation,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told reporters.

“We are trying to formulate new strategies,” he said, adding that those new strategies had not yet been decided.

Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura confirmed there was no discussion at the summit on how to implement the peace plan.

Myanmar sent a senior foreign ministry official to the meeting after three years of shunning summits because the bloc barred junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in the wake of the coup.

Bloc’s clout in doubt

ASEAN’s failure to make any tangible progress in resolving a civil war inside one of its own members has fuelled longstanding questions about its effectiveness.

“The longer the Myanmar crisis remains unresolved, the greater the risk of ASEAN outliving its usefulness in resolving conflicts within the Southeast Asian region,” Mustafa Izzuddin, international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, told AFP.

With formal diplomacy making no progress, Thailand will host informal talks on the crisis in December involving ASEAN members and possibly neighbouring countries such as China and India.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will join the leaders in Vientiane for talks on Friday (October 11, 2024), when he is expected to press for the junta to take steps such as reducing violence, releasing political prisoners and engaging with the opposition.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said there had been “virtually zero progress” on these issues from the junta.

Premier Li Qiang of China — long Myanmar’s most important ally — will hold talks with ASEAN leaders on Thursday (October 10, 2024) before joining an “ASEAN Plus Three” summit with new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea.

The South China Sea will also be discussed when the leaders sit down with Mr. Li, after months of violent clashes between Chinese vessels and Philippine and Vietnamese fishermen.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a waterway of immense strategic importance through which trillions of dollars in trade transits every year.

Four ASEAN members — the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei — have competing claims to various small islands and reefs.

The draft summit statement reiterated ASEAN’s longstanding calls for restraint and respect for international law.

Myanmar’s junta carried out fresh air strikes on an opposition-held town Friday (September 27, 2024), hours after issuing an unprecedented invitation to its enemies for talks on the country’s civil war.

Thursday’s surprise call for discussions was likely a sop to main ally China and a nudge towards controversial fresh elections, analysts said, and two prominent armed groups swiftly dismissed it.

The offer came with the junta reeling from battlefield reverses to ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” that rose up to oppose the military’s seizure of power in 2021.

The groups have seized several lucrative border crossings and last month took Lashio, a city of 150,000 people — the biggest urban centre to fall to rebels since 1962.

The call was “the first time that the regime has expressed a willingness to have a dialogue with the post-coup resistance forces”, said Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has long spoken of “annihilating” the groups, he pointed out.

Hours after the offer, military jets bombed Lashio, in northern Shan state, now in the hands of fighters from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

“I heard two explosions,” a resident told AFP, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

“I heard five people were killed and a lot of people were wounded.”

One Yangon-based diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the junta’s offer: “So far I haven’t seen the inclination towards serious reconciliation.”

– ‘No change’ –

AFP has contacted for comment the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), ethnic armed groups that hold territory in the north. The MNDAA could not be reached.

The Karen National Union, which has fought for decades for autonomy along the Thai border, said talks were only possible if the military agreed to “common political objectives”.

That included the military staying out of politics, accepting a new, federal constitution, and being held accountable for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee said.

“If they don’t agree with it, then nothing will happen… We will keep putting pressure on them politically, militarily,” he told AFP.

The military is highly unlikely to agree to such terms.

A spokesperson for the “Mandalay PDF”, which has seized territory in the hills around second city Mandalay, also dismissed the offer.

“This invitation won’t make any changes to our way,” said Osmond, who goes by a pseudonym.

“We will keep doing what we have to do.”

– ‘Divide and rule’ –

But even if nothing comes of the invitation, just issuing it could still have value for the regime, said Horsey.

“It would allow them to portray themselves — for example to China, which is pushing for a deal — as wanting peace, even while they continue with their campaign of indiscriminate airstrikes.”

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the isolated junta and its sprawling Belt and Road Initiative includes key projects in Myanmar.

Last month Beijing’s foreign minister said it supported the junta’s plan to hold fresh polls and return the conflict-torn country to a “democratic transition”.

“China hopes that all relevant parties will stop fighting and hold talks,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular press briefing on Friday.

Independent analyst David Mathieson said that in addition to Beijing, the offer was likely aimed at neighbouring countries and some western diplomats who may see elections as a “vehicle to reduce violence and pursue a process of de-escalation”, despite their inevitable flaws.

The military, which justified its coup with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, has long pledged to hold fresh polls when conditions permit.

It has since dissolved Suu Kyi’s popular National League for Democracy (NLD) and introduced tough new rules governing political parties.

Census takers are due to start collecting data in early October in preparation for possible polls in 2025, but analysts say any vote would be a sham and would likely be targeted by the military’s opponents.

“Hovering above all of this is the Myanmar military’s tried and tested divide and rule strategy,” said Mathieson, adding it “may be soiled and strained but still effective”.