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

In advance of a widely dissented national election scheduled for the following month, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has made a goodwill visit to Myanmar. It is believed that Lukashenko will support the military of the Southeast Asian nation.

The self-installed de facto leader of the country, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, met with Lukashenko at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw, according to Myanmar state media on Friday.

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“This visit marked a historic occasion and demonstrated Belarus’ goodwill and trust in Myanmar. A Belarusian Head of State has visited Myanmar for the first time in 26 years of diplomatic relations, according to military-run newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.

Premier Nyo Saw, Prime Minister, and other top military officials from Myanmar’s military government welcomed Lukashenko on Thursday night with full state honors and cultural performers.

Since Myanmar’s military imposed the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on February 1st, 2021, Lukashenko is only the second foreign leader to visit the country after former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Belarusian leader’s visit comes just one month before the military is scheduled to hold national elections, which many domestic and international observers have denounced as a fake. The military government has hailed his visit as a return to normalcy, with polls scheduled for late December being supported by the general public.

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

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

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

“We in Belarus produce a full line of machinery and equipment, and Myanmar intends to mechanize its agriculture. No topics are off limits for our cooperation, according to our president, according to Ryzhenkov.

Since the organization was founded in 1994, Lukashenko has been the former Soviet state’s first and only president. Belarus’s government is widely regarded as authoritarian.

Belarus is one of the few nations that has kept in touch with Myanmar’s military leaders since the coup, along with its major backers China and Russia.

The Myanmar military’s control of the divided nation, where ethnic armed groups have waged decades-long conflicts for independence, has since become a popular protest movement in the immediate wake of the coup.

In late 2024, census workers for the military government were only able to count the population in 145 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, which suggests that the military now controls less than half the nation.

Other recent estimates estimate that the military controls only a portion of the nation’s territory. About twice as much of the territory is controlled by ethnic armed groups and the anti-regime People’s Defence Force, which have pledged to boycott and violently disrupt the upcoming elections.

Critics have criticized the absurdity of holding elections in such circumstances despite geographic restrictions, rampant violence, and the Myanmar military’s vote to dissolve Aung San Suu Kyi’s enormously popular NLD in March 2023.