Belarus’s Lukashenko becomes second only leader to visit Myanmar since coup

Alexander Lukashenko’s visit comes shortly before military government holds national polls widely condemned as a sham.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Myanmar on a goodwill visit seen as lending support to the Southeast Asian country’s military government in advance of a widely condemned national election set to be held next month.

Myanmar state media reported on Friday that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the country’s self-installed de facto leader, met Lukashenko at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Naypyidaw.

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“This visit demonstrated Belarus’s goodwill and trust towards Myanmar and marked a historic occasion. It is the first time in 26 years of diplomatic relations that a Belarusian Head of State has visited Myanmar,” military run outlet The Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

Lukashenko’s arrival at a military airport in Naypyidaw on Thursday night saw him welcomed by senior figures from Myanmar’s military government, including Prime Minister Nyo Saw, with full state honours and cultural performers.

After former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lukashenko is only the second foreign leader to visit Myanmar since its military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a coup on February 1, 2021.

The Belarusian leader’s visit also comes just a month before the military is set to host national elections that many domestic and international observers have condemned as a sham. His visit is widely viewed as lending support to the polls, due to be held in late December, and which the military government has touted as a return to normalcy.

Following Lukashenko’s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on Friday, The Global New Light also confirmed that Belarus plans to “send an observation team to Myanmar” to monitor the polls.

The leaders also agreed that “collaboration will also be strengthened in military technologies and trade”, a day after the Myanmar-Belarus Development Cooperation Roadmap 2026–2028 was signed in Yangon.

Belarus state media quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov as saying that Myanmar has “significant potential in various industrial sectors”, while Belarus has “expertise and modern technologies in mechanical engineering”.

“Myanmar plans to mechanise its agriculture, and we in Belarus produce a complete lineup of machinery and equipment. As our president says, no topics are off limits for our cooperation,” Ryzhenkov said.

Belarus’s government is widely regarded as authoritarian, with Lukashenko serving as the former Soviet state’s first and only president since the office was established in 1994.

Along with major backers China and Russia, Belarus is one of the very few countries that have continued to engage with Myanmar’s military leaders since the coup.

A popular protest movement in the immediate aftermath of the coup has since morphed into a years-long civil war, further weakening the Myanmar military’s control over the fractured country, where ethnic armed groups have fought decades-long wars for independence.

Preparing for the polls, military government census takers in late 2024 were only able to count populations in 145 of Myanmar’s 330 townships – indicating the military now controls less than half the country.

Other recent estimates place the military’s control as low as 21 percent of the country’s territory. Ethnic armed groups and the anti-regime People’s Defence Force – which have pledged to boycott and violently disrupt the upcoming polls – control approximately double that amount of territory.

Amid geographic limitations and raging violence, as well as the Myanmar military’s March 2023 dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi’s hugely popular NLD, critics have pointed to the absurdity of holding elections in such circumstances.

Preparing for the polls, military leaders carried out a mass amnesty on Thursday, pardoning or dropping charges against 8,665 people imprisoned for opposing army governance.