Rights Group Slams ‘Complicit’ Vietnam for Hosting Min Aung Hlaing

 

by Maung Kavi

The Irrawaddy | 2026.09.04

 

Rights group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) has condemned Vietnam’s decision to welcome regime leader Min Aung Hlaing for an official visit, saying Hanoi risks deepening “complicity” in the putsch leader’s crimes.

During the three-day trip, which started Friday, Min Aung Hlaing meets Vietnam’s president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker, and attends a business forum. Vietnamese state media have portrayed it as giving fresh impetus to bilateral ties, highlighting cooperation in trade and investment.

“By receiving Min Aung Hlaing as a head of state and by continuing its business with an illegal, brutal and corrupt military junta, Vietnam is helping to keep the money flowing, backing a criminal cartel and aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity,” JFM warned.

As evidence of alleged complicity it singled out Mytel, a telecoms operator jointly owned by Vietnam’s Viettel Global Investment, the military-owned Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), and regime cronies.

According to JFM, Mytel has generated vast revenues for MEC, with confidential projections showing the military may receive over US$ 700 million in dividends over 10 years.

“Beyond financing, Mytel serves strategic military and surveillance purposes,” it pointed out, with towers built inside army bases and Chinese‑style firewall technology enabling real‑time tracking of dissidents.

Other Vietnamese companies have been linked to the junta’s aviation fuel supply chain, including Hai Linh and shipping firms tied to the vessel LS Mercury, according to the statement. Others, such as OSB Investment and Technology JSC, have supplied satellite communications equipment to the military since 2014, it added.

FM spokeswoman Yadanar Maung said Vietnam is “awarding false legitimacy to the illegal junta” and “backing a military that is slaughtering civilians, committing rape and sexual torture, causing mass displacement and destabilizing the region through transnational crime.”

She urged Australia, Canada, the EU, UK and U.S. to sanction Vietnamese companies and individuals complicit in sustaining the junta’s terror campaign.

Min Aung Hlaing’s Hanoi trip is his seventh overseas tour since declaring himself president in April, following India, China, Laos, Thailand, Russia and Belarus. It is his first official visit to Vietnam since the 2021 coup.

While ASEAN as a whole has sidelined his regime for ignoring the Five‑Point Consensus peace plan, Vietnam is among individual member countries that have steadily deepened engagement. Min Aung Hlaing is also expected to attend the upcoming CLMV and ACMECS summits hosted in Vietnam.

 

 

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