Min Aung Hlaing News

death toll from a devastating earthquake has risen to nearly 3,500 people. The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on March 28, razing buildings, cutting off power and destroying bridges and roads across the country. Damage has been particularly severe in the city of Sagaing near the epicentre, as well as in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city and home to more than 1.7 million people. State media in the military junta-led country now say that the earthquake has caused 3,471 confirmed deaths and injured 4,671 people, while 214 remain missing. With people either having lost their homes entirely or reluctant to spend time in cracked and unstable structures, many Mandalay residents have been sleeping outside in tents.

The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people. As dawn broke Sunday, tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighbourhood, tossing bricks aside one by one. «About seven people died here» when the quake struck Friday, he told AFP. «I'm looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.

Operation Brahma' to assist Myanmar after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake shook the country, claiming over 1,644 lives and reducing buildings to rubble. The large-scale humanitarian mission includes rescue teams, medical aid, and relief supplies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Myanmar’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, expressing solidarity. In a post on X, he said, «Spoke with Senior General H E Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar. Conveyed our deep condolences at the loss of lives in the devastating earthquake. As a close friend and neighbour, India stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar in this difficult hour.»

During junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s recent visit to Moscow, it was announced that Russia had established a joint satellite imagery analysis centre in Myanmar. It was also revealed that Russia had offered to “share information captured by its reconnaissance satellites with the regime for military purposes”. This would boost the junta’s ability to plan military operations against rebel groups, said experts on Myanmar affairs. After the meeting between Min Aung Hlaing and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow—the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday for construction of a small nuclear power plant in Myanmar with Russian support. Rosatom, Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation, said the plant would have a capacity of 100 megawatts with the possibility of trebling it. Russia, which supplied 90% of Myanmar’s energy needs last year, has agreed to step up energy supplies to the Southeast Asian country. The junta chief during the visit also sought Moscow’s support for other projects in Myanmar besides hailing Buddhism links between the two countries, said people familiar with the visit.

online scam operations in another blow to the embattled junta. The military is facing its biggest threat since seizing power in a 2021 coup after three armed ethnic groups — known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance — launched a sweeping October offensive in northern Shan state. Since November people have been fleeing Laukkai town, located in a district bordering China that is run by a Myanmar military-aligned militia and notorious for gambling, prostitution and online scams run out of compounds staffed by thousands of people, many trafficked. The alliance — made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — said the town was now under their control. «All members from the Myanmar Army's Military Operational Command in Laukkai were disarmed and Laukkai became a clean area where there are no more members of the Myanmar Army,» the alliance said in a statement. It added that scores of junta soldiers, including some officers, had been captured and disarmed. The junta has not commented. TNLA Brigadier-General Tar Bhone Kyaw confirmed Saturday that the MNDAA had taken Laukkai. «It is their land, they got it back now,» he told AFP.

China's decision against inviting Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to the third Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing this week was part of its diplomatic optics to avoid global criticism. It however sent invitation to Junta Deputy Prime Minister and Transport and Communications Minister General Mya Tun Oo for attending the forum.

JF-17 Thunder, supplied to Myanmar by Pakistan were declared unfit and the military junta has sent a «stern message» to Islamabad to answer for the mess, Myanmar-based Narinjara News reported citing sources. Pakistan supplied many JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft to Myanmar between 2019 and 2021 and all have been declared «unfit for operations.» The delivered planes were part of a deal that the Burmese military junta signed in 2016 to purchase JF-17 produced jointly by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation of China. But soon after the delivery of the aircraft, the Burmese Air Force was forced to ground the planes as malfunctions and structural flaws were detected. The failure of JF-17 appears to be shimmering tensions between Islamabad and Naypyidaw and somehow compelled China to intervene. A recent visit by Myanmar's Chinese envoy to Naypyidaw is said to have carried a message from the CCP's top leadership to Gen Min Aung Hlaing, as per Narinjara News. According to sources, Pakistan is trying hard to renegotiate the deal with newer versions of the JF-17s.

China is courting Myanmar, a neighbour critical to India’s Act East Policy with the junta Chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing expected to visit Beijing in September, a visit that will be closely watched in New Delhi. This will be the General’s first trip to Beijing since the February 2021 coup that brought him to power. While China has been pushing various infrastructure projects in Myanmar for access to the Bay of Bengal region, it has so far been hesitant to host the General.

Half a year after the military junta in Myanmar revealed its plans to launch a digital currency, the country’s government, ousted in a coup in 2021, voices its own intention to launch one using frozen national funds.