The foreign minister of Thailand’s caretaker government Don Pramudwinai reportedly met Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his recent undisclosed visit to Naypyidaw on 9 July, according to a report of Japanese Kyodo News, quoting ASEAN diplomatic sources.
Don confirmed his contact with Aung San Suu Kyi to the ASEAN foreign ministers on 11 July during the first-day session of 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
No other media sources have confirmed the meeting as this story goes to press.
If confirmed, it was the first meeting between a high-ranking foreign government official and Myanmar's democracy icon since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021. She was moved from house arrest to solitary confinement in a prison in Naypyidaw in June 2022.
Kyodo News also reported that Don may read out a message from Aung San Suu Kyi today, during the second day of the ASEAN foreign minister’s meeting.
The news of the Thai foreign minister’s visit to Myanmar’s capital came out at the same time that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that he was leaving politics on 11 July after his political party failed to win majority votes in May’s Thai general election.