NAYPYIDAW, MYANMAR — Thailand sent a special envoy to attend the inauguration of Myanmar’s new president on Friday, as former military commander Min Aung Hlaing was sworn into office following an election widely criticised as neither free nor fair.
Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, Chief Advisor and Special Envoy of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, attended the ceremony at the Myanmar Parliament in Naypyidaw on 10 April and paid a courtesy call on President Min Aung Hlaing.
Parnpree conveyed congratulations from Thailand’s Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, expressing Thailand’s readiness to strengthen cooperation with Myanmar on security and economic matters for the benefit of both countries’ people.
Min Aung Hlaing, who led a military coup in 2021 that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was elected president by parliament on 3 April and will serve a five-year term. The election was boycotted by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and judged by United Nations experts and rights groups to be neither free nor fair.
The transition to a nominally civilian government is widely seen as an effort by the military to retain power while presenting a democratic facade. Min Aung Hlaing also faces the challenge of ending a civil war that erupted following the 2021 coup.
