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Min Aung Hlaing Takes His Dawei Pitch to Moscow
Min Aung Hlaing showed up in Moscow on Monday for his seventh Russia trip since the coup, bringing along Tanintharyi's chief minister for a visit that’s intended to boost the Dawei Special Economic Zone. Russia's Inter RAO signed a June deal with the Launglon Economic Development Company for a coal plant, oil refinery, and deep-sea port, and the Kremlin agenda also includes a review of last year's Rosatom pact for a small modular nuclear reactor. Thailand is looking at a similar playbook and at a Thai-Russian Joint Commission meeting a few days earlier, Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa talked up Dawei as the anchor for an overland route to Chon Buri that would allow cargo to avoid the Strait of Malacca. A five-year military cooperation deal signed in February, with details still under wraps, will round out the visit. No signing dates were given for any of the SEZ projects.
Read more: Internazionale (prior visits), WRAL (business forum), DVB (Putin meeting), Anadolu (Kremlin history), MRTV (delegation)
Junta Retakes Magway Oil Field, Kills CDF-Asho Chief
A three-month military offensive to retake Magway's oil field has killed nearly 30 civilians, destroyed more than 330 homes in Myaing and Pauk, and displaced tens of thousands. An ambush 77 kilometers west of Magway city killed CDF-Asho Commander-in-Chief Salai Yoe Chin and two other members during a logistics run in Ngape Township. Ngape sits on the Ann-Padan corridor, where CDF-Asho and the Arakan Army have jointly overrun at least three junta outposts since October, squeezing supply lines to the military's Western Command in Ann. The AA now controls 14 of Arakan State's 17 townships in addition to Paletwa in (neighboring) Chin State. The Asho Chin group says it plans to keep fighting alongside the AA.
Read more: Myanmar Now (displacement), DVB (ambush)
Junta Sorts Rohingya Into Residents, Ghosts, Terrorists
The junta's Foreign Ministry says it has verified 308,797 of the 828,824 names that Bangladesh gave them as former Rakhine residents, and expects to take them back once security in the state stabilizes. That asterisk is going to be doing some heavy lifting, given the Arakan Army's hold over much of Rakhine. Another 4,241 names were put in amother bucket as accused terrorists, a label Bangladesh's repatriation commissioner Mizanur Rahman poopooed by saying "terrorist or not, they are residents of Myanmar." A further 113,507 names were not able to be verified at all. Previous repatriation arrangements in 2018 and 2019 resulted in *checks notes*: no returns. The United Council of Rohingya, the elected body representing refugees in Cox's Bazar, says the whole affair is "misleading propaganda." It rejects Naypyidaw's continued use of "Bengali" and its claim that only 540,000 people left during 2017, a figure Dhaka also disputes.
Read more: New Age (Rohingya response), DVB (Malaysia asylum deal), Anadolu (fleeing figures), New Age (Bangladesh response), New Age (population dispute)
EU Adds €10.5 Million as Monsoon Floods Hit Sagaing
The EU is adding €10.5 million in humanitarian aid, bringing its 2026 total to €49.1 million. The UN now says 16.2 million people need help and 12.4 million are going hungry. Monsoon flooding since July has hit an estimated 390,000 people in Sagaing, Rakhine, Ayeyarwady, and Kachin. Sagaing makes up 230,000 of the number as villages have been submerged and rice seedlings washed out in Wetlet Township.
Read more: AP (cholera), Straits Times (flood relocation), ReliefWeb (EU aid), ReliefWeb (WFP biscuits)
Food Prices Up a Fifth, Biggest Increase in A-P
Five months into the Red Sea shipping disruption, the country's food basket is costing a fifth more than it did before. It’s the biggest increase the WFP tracks in Asia-Pacific. A strong El Nino forecast and stubbornly high fertilizer prices are hitting rice and maize farmers as crops come into critical growth stages. High input costs are also limiting spending on irrigation and crop protection, which is grim math for desperate families watching prices climb out of reach.
Read more: ReliefWeb
Air Force Bombs Village, Stray Rounds Hit Mae Sot (Again)
A junta jet bombed Auk Zee Kaing village in Rathedaung Township. Two hundred miles east, fighting between junta troops and the Karen National Liberation Army around Min La Pan sent stray rounds back into Ban Huai Maha Wong in Thailand's Mae Sot district, hitting the same homes that were already damaged in previous exchanges. No injuries were reported in Mae Sot. Junta forces are now flying supplies in to frontline troops to try and prevent ambushes on overland convoys, a change in strategy that appears to be increasing the frequency of airstrikes.
Read more: Khaosod English (Myawaddy clashes), Narinjara (Thandwe deaths), DVB (Rakhine toll)
Bangkok-Naypyidaw Pollution Pact Misses Wa State Mines
Ambitiously, Bangkok and Naypyidaw's cross-border river pollution pact covers waterways the junta doesn’t even control. The rare earth mines poisoning them are in United Wa State Army territory in eastern Shan State, beyond the reach of Min Aung Hlaing's administrative authority. The Shan Human Rights Foundation says that not only that, but the deal also has no enforcement mechanism. Myanmar has earned $3.6 billion from rare earth exports to China since 2021.
Read more: Shan Herald
Ex-Ambassador Goes on Trial for London Residence
Kyaw Zwar Minn has gone on trial in London for trespassing at the ambassador's residence in northwest London, where he’s lived since being locked out of the embassy in 2021. After declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi, he spent a night in his car outside the embassy before moving into the residence, but prosecutors say he was told to vacate by both Naypyidaw and the UK Foreign Office. His lawyer, David Perry, argues Min Aung Hlaing's government can’t lawfully terminate his license at the address.
Read more: The Guardian
Resistance Alliance Names Ten-Seat Military Command
SCEF's Military Affairs Coordinating Body now has (some) names at the top. NUG Defense Minister Yee Mon is secretary, and two unnamed Chin National Front representatives are joint secretaries. The 10-seat panel is pulling senior commanders from member organizations including the KIO and KNU. Zaw Wai Soe, the SCEF Coordinator who also serves as NUG Minister for Health and Education, confirmed the body's creation in a recent Diplomat piece but declined to name the other seven seat-holders.
Read more: DVB
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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