India to host Myanmar President Hlaing, exiled govt. calls him a ‘terrorist junta leader’

Myanmar President U Min Aung Hlaing will visit India from May 30 to June 3, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Thursday (May 28, 2026). This will be the first foreign visit by President Min Aung Hlaing since he won the controversial election (December 2025-January 2026) that excluded political parties of the opposition.

The opposition’s National Unity Government (NUG) has protested against the announced visit, describing Mr. Min Aung Hlaing as a “terrorist junta leader” who is attacking Myanmar’s people.

“Myanmar lies at the confluence of India’s neighbourhood First, Act East and MAHASAGAR policies. The official visit of President U Min Aung Hlaing to India is expected to further strengthen and deepen the multi-faceted relations between the two countries,” the Ministry said. The visit will be keenly watched as it comes against the backdrop of intensifying Myanmar military attacks on rebel targets in Chin state, close to Mizoram, that is known for rare earth minerals. The attacks have increased against Ethnic Armed Organisations in Kachin and Karen states.

India-based Myanmar opposition groups have announced they will hold protests coinciding with the visit.

The President of Myanmar will begin his visit from Bodh Gaya where he is expected to offer prayers at the Maha Bodhi temple and meet resident Myanmar nationals and monks. The Ministry said the President will be accompanied by a “high-level delegation comprising several Cabinet Ministers, senior officials, and business leaders”. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 1 and participate in a Myanmar-India business forum in Delhi. He is next scheduled to visit Mumbai for meetings with business leaders and industrialists.

Soe Myint, editor of online news outlet Mizzima, said that Mr. Min Aung Hlaing, who is transitioning from the role of a military ruler to a civilian leader, will use the visit to deal with border management, arms smuggling and drugs trafficking. In the just-concluded Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the issue of scam centres in Southeast Asia featured prominently and the matter is expected to come up during discussion with the Myanmar side. In the recent past, India has airlifted hundreds of workers who were employed in scam centres inside Myanmar near the Thailand border.

Mr. Min Aung Hlaing was the Senior General and Chairman of the State Security and Peace Commission before the election was won by an army-backed political party that was criticised widely as a front to perpetuate the military junta’s grip over political power. Mr. Min Aung Hlaing had orchestrated the 2021 coup that toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. He met Prime Minister Modi on August 31, 2025, in Tianjin on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Responding to the news of the official visit, Myanmar’s exiled NUG has written to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar saying it was “deeply concerned” about the visit. The NUG urged India not to grant political legitimacy to Mr. Min Aung Hlaing who overthrew the democratic government of Myanmar in 2021.

Quoting Salai Dokhar, founder of the pressure group ‘India for Myanmar’, news outlet DVB has reported that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project is also expected to be part of the talks. The project was expected to connect Moreh in Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand through Myanmar, and the project has been halted by the civil war-like situation in Myanmar.