Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

US Has Opened Direct Talks With Myanmar Government, Report Claims

The outreach, which marks a significant shift in U.S. policy, is aimed at curbing online scamming operations and gaining access to the country’s rare earth deposits.

The plaza of the Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, at sunset.

Yesterday, Reuters published a report stating that the Trump administration has begun direct talks with Myanmar’s military-installed government for the first time since the 2021 coup, marking a significant change in U.S. policy toward the country.

According to the report, which was authored by Reuters’ Simon Lewis and cited seven current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the ‌policy shift, this engagement has so far focused on discreet issues, such as efforts to shut down the online scam centers, but “could lead to broader engagement, including on Myanmar’s rare-earth mineral deposits.”

The report claimed that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Michael Vance “joined talks” with coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw on September 15-16. The meeting was nominally aimed at securing the release of detained American businessman Adam Castillo, but also provided an opening for further engagement, four of the sources told Reuters.

Whether or not it is sustained, the engagement marks an important shift in U.S. policy towards Myanmar. When Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup in 2021, terminating a decade of political and economic reforms, the U.S. government quickly reimposed economic sanctions on senior generals and businesses linked to the military. The following year, it downgraded its diplomatic representation in the country, reverting to the policy that pertained between 1987 and 2012, when the U.S. was represented by a chief of mission rather than a fully credentialed ambassador.

The Reuters report also identified how Myanmar’s new military government used the detention of Castillo, a former head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar who was arrested at Yangon airport in June on opaque charges, in order to advance diplomatic re-engagement with Washington.

The September meeting between Vance and Min Aung Hlaing was preceded by back-channel negotiations between U.S. and Myanmar officials aimed at securing Castillo’s release. During these talks, Reuters reported, Myanmar “only asked for an official engagement at the right level with the U.S. government” in return.

The report makes clear that these were not the first engagements between U.S. and Myanmar officials. In June, the two sides held meetings in Tokyo; one source cited by the news agency said that in addition to Vance, “officials from the Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon took part.” Josh Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) wrote yesterday that several sources had also told him that prior to Vance’s visit to Naypyidaw, “U.S. officials had been secretly meeting with officials from Myanmar in Japan.”

The purpose of this engagement, the Reuters report states, was to combat the online scamming operations that have become deeply rooted in Myanmar since the coup, and which have defrauded Americans of billions of dollars. It added that “U.S. officials also discussed access to Myanmar’s massive ​deposits of heavy rare earths,” most of which are located in areas of northern Myanmar currently under the control of rebel forces including the........

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