AFP Asia

Table-topping Royal Challengers Bengaluru thrashed Chennai Super Kings by 50 runs on Friday for a second win in this year’s IPL, inspired by a “game-changing” performance from fast bowler Josh Hazlewood.Chasing 197, Chennai wilted despite a late cameo by veteran MS Dhoni who clubbed 30 runs off 16 balls, batting low down at nine in the order.Australian seamer Hazlewood, who finished with 3-21 in his four overs, and skipper Rajat Patidar’s 32-ball 51, sealed Bengaluru’s comfortable victory. Patidar, who is hoping to force his way into the India T20 team, was well-supported by teammates with openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli both making scores in the thirties in a total of 196-7.Chennai lost early wickets to Hazlewood and India veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who finished with 1-20 in his three overs.Hazlewood removed Rahul Tripathi (5) and Chennai skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (0) in the second over of the innings. Deepak Hooda (4) was then dismissed by Kumar in the fifth over to leave the home team reeling at 26-3. Yash Dayal took 2-18 in his three overs with England’s Liam Livingstone finishing with 2-28 in four overs of spin. India duo Ravindra Jadeja (25) and Shivam Dube (19) put up some resistance before Chennai limped to 146-8.Patidar said his “was a very important (innings). We were targeting 200 because that wouldn’t be easy to chase” in Chennai.”My goal was clear that as long as I was there, I would maximise every ball.”Patidar said that Hazlewood’s spell “was game-changing because we got two-three wickets in the first six overs”. Earlier, Kohli made a scrappy 30-ball 31 with the Indian superstar and Salt (32), falling to Afghanistan leg-spinner Noor Ahmad. Noor was the most impressive of all the Chennai bowlers and finished with an impressive 3-36 in his four overs. Devdutt Padikkal (27) and Tim David, with an eight-ball 22, also played important roles to boost the visitors’ total.  “It wasn’t that easy to bat,” said Chennai skipper Gaikwad who added “bad fielding cost us” the game. 

A huge earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds, with dozens trapped in collapsed buildings and the death toll expected to rise.The shallow 7.7-magnitude tremor hit northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon, and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.The quake flattened buildings, downed bridges, and cracked roads across swathes of Myanmar, and even demolished a 30-storey skyscraper under construction hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in Bangkok.While the full extent of the catastrophe is yet to emerge, the leader of isolated Myanmar, in the grip of a civil war, issued a rare plea for international aid.Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said 144 people had been killed, with 732 confirmed injured, but warned the toll was “likely to rise”. Eight deaths have been confirmed so far in Thailand, with more expected.”I would like to invite any country, any organisation, or anyone in Myanmar to come and help. Thank you,” he said in a televised speech, after visiting a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw.He urged massive relief efforts in the wake of the disaster and said he had “opened all ways for foreign aid”.US President Donald Trump said Washington would be offering assistance.- ‘Mass casualty area ‘ -Four years of civil war sparked by the military seizing power have ravaged Myanmar’s infrastructure and healthcare system, leaving it ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster.Power is down in parts of Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon, the local utility said.The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake.Hundreds of casualties arrived at a major hospital in Naypyidaw, where the emergency department entrance had collapsed on a car.Medics treated the wounded outside the hospital, the same one visited by the junta chief. One official described it as a “mass casualty area”.”I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,” a doctor told AFP.Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, appeared to have been badly hit. AFP photos from the city showed multiple buildings in ruins.A resident reached by phone told AFP that a hospital and a hotel had been destroyed, and said the city was badly lacking in rescue personnel.The main road bridge linking Mandalay and Sagaing was down, the city’s university and historic palace wall have collapsed, and telecoms have been affected, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.- Skyscraper collapse -Across the border in Thailand, a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed into a tangled heap of rubble and dust in a matter of seconds.Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said eight dead bodies have been recovered and, with between 90 and 110 people unaccounted for, the toll is expected to rise.”We see several dead bodies under the rubble. We will take time to bring the bodies out to avoid any further collapses,” he told reporters.”I heard people calling for help, saying ‘help me’,” Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.As night fell, around 100 rescue workers assembled at the scene to search for survivors, illuminated by specially erected floodlights.Visiting the site, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said “every building” in Bangkok would need to be inspected for safety, though it was not immediately clear how that would be carried out.An emergency zone was declared in Bangkok, where some metro and light rail services were suspended.The streets of the capital were full of commuters attempting to walk home, or simply taking refuge in the entrances of malls and office buildings.City authorities said parks would stay open overnight for those unable to sleep at home.Strong quakes are extremely rare in Thailand, and across Bangkok and the northern tourist destination of Chiang Mai, stunned residents hurried outside, unsure of how to respond.”This is the strongest tremor I’ve experienced in my life,” said Sai, 76, who rushed out of a minimart in Chiang Mai when it started to shake.The quake was felt across the region, with China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India all reporting tremors.India, France and the European Union offered to provide assistance, while the WHO said it was mobilising to prepare trauma injury supplies.Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and widespread devastation” in a telegram published by the Vatican.Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar.A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.burs-pdw/sst

India on Friday announced a $7.3 billion deal to purchase 156 locally made light combat Prachand helicopters for its air force and the army — part of its ongoing push to be self-reliant on defence.The country’s first locally designed and developed combat helicopter will be produced at the country’s largest helicopter factory, opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2023.”This decision marks a major boost to India’s combat capabilities and self-reliance,” defence minister Rajnath Singh said on X. “This is indeed a proud moment for India’s Make in India journey.”His ministry said it had signed contracts with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.”The supply of these helicopters shall commence from the third year and will be spread over the next five years”, the ministry said, without giving specific dates.The new aircraft will “enhance the combat capability of armed forces at high altitudes,” it added.The country’s recent push to modernise and locally produce defence equipment was spurred by its deadliest clashes in decades with China along their long and disputed border in 2020.India has also fought multiple wars with its other nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan, and has tens of thousands of troops deployed along both of those tense frontiers. The new helicopters will be deployed around the country’s tough high-altitude Himalayan frontiers. In recent years, India has introduced its first locally made aircraft carrier. It also become only one of six countries with nuclear strike capabilities on land, sea and air after it tested a ballistic missile from its first homegrown nuclear-powered submarine.Modi has pledged to “gradually reduce India’s dependence on foreign countries for its defence needs”, but the country still remains one of the biggest hardware importers in the world. New Delhi has tried to cut its dependence on Russia, its traditional ally and primary source of key military platforms for decades. It has procured key hardware worth billions of dollars from countries like Israel, France and the United States in recent years.Modi has also eased investment and co-production rules to spur local defence manufacturing. 

A powerful earthquake killed more than 20 people across Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, toppling buildings and bridges and trapping over 80 workers in an under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok.The shallow 7.7-magnitude tremor hit northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, and was followed minutes later by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock.The quake’s devastation prompted a rare request for international aid from Myanmar’s isolated military junta, which has lost swathes of territory to armed groups. A state of emergency was declared across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, which the World Health Organization described as a “very, very big threat to life and health”.”About 20 people” were confirmed dead at a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw, a doctor told AFP on condition of anonymity.Across the border in Thailand, three people were confirmed dead in the collapse of a skyscraper, with 81 more missing and believed trapped in the twisted metal and rubble of the under-construction building.The quake’s worst impacts appeared to be in Myanmar. Hundreds of casualties arrived at a hospital in Naypyidaw where the emergency department entrance had collapsed on a car.A hospital official ushered journalists away from the area as medics treated patients outside, saying: “this is a mass casualty area.””I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,” a doctor told AFP.AFP reporters saw junta chief Min Aung Hlaing arrive at the hospital as the ruling military called for foreign help.”We want the international community to give humanitarian aid as soon as possible,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP at the hospital.The rare plea from the junta raises the prospect that damage and casualties may be on a large scale, with Myanmar’s medical system and infrastructure ravaged by four years of civil war.As night fell, AFP journalists saw rescuers trying to extract a mother and son from the ruins of a collapsed building in the capital.Both were seriously injured but rescuers were unable to reach them, a Red Cross worker told AFP.- Skyscraper collapse -In Thailand, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters at least three workers had been killed, with 81 more trapped, after the collapse of a building under construction near the sprawling Chatuchak market.Rescuers were surveying the tangle of rubble and twisted metal for a safe way to search for survivors, an AFP photographer at the scene said.”I heard people calling for help, saying ‘help me’,” Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.”We estimate that hundreds of people are injured,” he said.Visiting the site, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said “every building” in Bangkok would need to be inspected for safety, though it was not immediately clear how that would be carried out.Across Bangkok and the northern tourist destination of Chiang Mai, where the power briefly went out, stunned residents hurried outside, unsure of how to respond to the unusual quake.Sai, 76, rushed out of a minimart in Chiang Mai when the shop started to shake.”This is the strongest tremor I’ve experienced in my life.”- Buildings damaged -An emergency zone was declared in Bangkok, where some metro and light rail services were suspended, further snarling the city’s already notorious traffic.The streets of the capital were full of commuters attempting to walk home, or simply taking refuge in the entrances of malls and office buildings.City authorities said parks would stay open overnight for those unable to sleep at home.The quake was felt across the region, with China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India all reporting tremors.India, France and the European Union all offered to provide assistance, while the WHO said it was mobilising its logistics hub in Dubai to prepare trauma injury supplies.State-linked Beijing News showed emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets on a street strewn with fallen masonry in the city of Ruili, on the Chinese border with Myanmar.A video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and geolocated by AFP showed a torrent of water and debris cascading from the roof of a high-rise block in Ruili as people fled through a street market below.Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, where six strong quakes of 7.0 magnitude or more struck between 1930 and 1956 near the Sagaing Fault, which runs north to south through the centre of the country, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the ancient capital Bagan in central Myanmar killed three people in 2016, also toppling spires and crumbling temple walls at the tourist destination.burs-sah/rsc

A mushroom cloud of dust and debris swept through the streets of northern Bangkok on Friday as panicked residents ran for their lives after an under-construction skyscraper came crashing down following a powerful earthquake.The construction site of a new 30-storey government building quickly turned into a disaster scene, with people jumping into cars to escape or shrieking as they fled on foot.Workers in hard hats and orange hi-vis jackets were engulfed by dust as the concrete stack fell, with dozens who couldn’t get away trapped under the rubble.Rescuers at the collapse site were dwarfed by an enormous mound of rubble and tangled metal struts, just metres from the bustling Chatuchak Market which is hugely popular with tourists.Some of the concrete facade and metal bars at the bottom of the tower survived the collapse, AFP photographs showed.Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters that at least three workers had been killed, with 81 more trapped inside when the building came down.- ‘Such a devastating impact’ -The 7.7-magnitude quake violently shook buildings across Bangkok — where strong tremors are almost unheard of — leaving workers and shoppers rushing into the street in shock. “At first, I thought I was sick — like I was getting dizzy or about to faint. Then I noticed the lanterns were moving,” said Hongsinunt, who like many other office workers fled her Bangkok building.Dramatic video footage showed the tremor rocking a high-rise hotel, with water from its rooftop pool whipping over the building’s edge.”I was shopping inside a mall when I noticed some signs moving, so I quickly ran outside,” said Attapong Sukyimnoi, a broker. “I knew I had to get to an open space — it was instinct.”Terrifying tremors also rocked the northern city of Chiang Mai, popular with tourists.Receptionist Baitoey Pradit Sa On said when the quake hit all the guests rushed from her hotel.”It was chaotic… even the water splashed out of the pool,” she said, pointing at the soaked area around it.Strong tremors were also felt in neighbouring China and Myanmar, where roads were pulled up and a major hospital was declared a “mass casualty area”.Bangkok rescuers were focused on the skyscraper collapse site, racing there to find survivors.”I heard people calling for help, saying ‘help me’,” Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bang Sue district, told AFP.”We estimate that hundreds of people are injured but we are still determining the number of casualties.””I fear many lives have been lost. We have never experienced an earthquake with such a devastating impact before.”

Rows of wounded lay outside the emergency department of the 1,000-bed hospital in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Friday, some writhing in pain and others in shock after a powerful earthquake.A stream of casualties were brought to the hospital — some in cars, others in pickups, and others carried on stretchers, their bodies bloody and covered in dust.”This is a mass casualty area”, a hospital official said, as they ushered journalists away from the treatment area.The hospital itself was hit by the terrifying tremors, which buckled roads and ripped tarmac apart as the ground vibrated violently for around half a minute.The hospital’s emergency department was itself heavily damaged, a car crushed under the heavy concrete of its fallen entrance.”Many injured people have been arriving, I haven’t seen anything like this before,” a doctor at the hospital told AFP.”We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted.”Some cried in pain, others lay still as relatives sought to comfort them, intravenous drips from their arms.”Hundreds of injured people are arriving… but the emergency building here also collapsed,” security officials at the hospital said.Others sat stunned with their head in their hands, blood caking their faces and limbs.Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing visited the hospital, surveying the wounded lying on stretchers.- ‘Help me’ -The Myanmar capital is some 250 kilometres (150 miles) south from the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude shallow tremor, that hit northwest of the city of Sagaing on Friday afternoon, according to the United States Geological Survey.A 6.4-magnitude aftershock hit the same area minutes later.A team of AFP journalists were at the National Museum in Naypyidaw when the earthquake struck, with chunks of the ceiling falling and cracks running up the walls.The road to one of the biggest hospitals in Naypyidaw was jammed with traffic.As ambulance weaved between vehicles, and shouting paramedic pleaded to be allowed to get through to reach the care of doctors.Those inside ran outside, many trembling and tearful, and frantically trying to call family members on their phones to check if they were alive.Powerful tremors were also felt in neighbouring China and in Thailand, where buildings in the capital Bangkok were shaken violently. Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bangkok’s Bang Sue district, said he could hear the sound of people screaming for aid trapped in the debris after a 30-story under-construction tower block collapse.”I heard people calling for help, saying help me,” he told AFP. “We estimate that hundreds of people are injured but we are still determining the number of casualties.””I fear many lives have been lost. We have never experienced an earthquake with such a devastating impact before.”Bangkok residents are used to tremors — and know to find a safe space outside if possible — but many said the force on Friday came as a shock.”I was shopping inside a mall when I noticed some signs moving, so I quickly ran outside,” said Attapong Sukyimnoi, a broker. “I knew I had to get to an open space — it was instinct.”burs-pjm/hmn

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday pledged deeper cooperation with Bangladeshi counterpart Muhammad Yunus in a meeting that came as Dhaka seeks new friends to offset frosty ties with India.Yunus took charge of Bangladesh last August after the toppling of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after a student-led uprising.India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government, and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit to China — India’s biggest Asian rival.Xi told Yunus on Friday that Beijing was “willing to work with Bangladesh to push bilateral cooperation to a new level,” Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.”China… insists on remaining a good neighbour, good friend and good partner to Bangladesh, based on mutual trust,” Xi said, according to CCTV.The Chinese leader said Beijing and Dhaka should “firmly support each other” on core interests and backed Bangladesh on issues including safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.He added that the two countries would explore cooperation in infrastructure construction, water conservancy and the digital, marine and environmental sectors.Yunus’s chief press secretary Shafiqul Alam called the meeting a “great success” and hailed Xi’s “warmth and cordiality” as well as his promise to encourage Chinese investment in Bangladesh.”We are optimistic about seeing significant Chinese investment this time,” Alam said, adding: “we hope this marks the beginning of a new era in Sino-Bangladeshi relations”.Dhaka said this week that Yunus’s China visit showed that Bangladesh was “sending a message”.The 84-year-old Nobel laureate is expected to return home on Saturday after holding several other high-level meetings in the Chinese capital.Several agreements are expected to be signed on economic and technical assistance, cultural and sports cooperation, and media collaboration between the two countries, according to the Bangladeshi administration.Talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017.China has acted as a mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of the ruling junta’s unwillingness to have them returned.- India tensions -Senior figures in the Indian and Bangladeshi governments have traded barbs ahead of Yunus’s sojourn to Beijing.Those tensions have almost fully halted travel by Bangladeshis to India for medical tourism, thousands of whom crossed the border each year to seek care in their larger neighbour.Dhaka’s top foreign ministry bureaucrat said this week that talks in Beijing would touch on the establishment of a Chinese “Friendship Hospital” in Bangladesh.Yunus’s caretaker administration has the unenviable task of instilling democratic reforms ahead of new elections expected by mid-2026.It has requested — so far unsuccessfully — that India allow Hasina’s extradition to face charges of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government.Yunus has also sought a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to reset relations, with both expected to be at the same regional summit in Bangkok next month. His government has yet to receive a response, with Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar saying the request was “under review”. 

Family and supporters of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte will rally Friday to mark his 80th birthday and protest against his detention in The Hague on a charge of crimes against humanity.Duterte could spend the remainder of his life in jail if convicted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the charge tied to his “war on drugs” in which thousands were killed.Supporters are planning more than 200 simultaneous birthday rallies demanding his release.Presidential palace spokeswoman Claire Castro however warned pro-Duterte protesters that they were “bordering the line of inciting to sedition”.Castro said that Philippine officials wished Duterte “good health, good fortune”, but added that “he needs that.”Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, his eldest daughter, has been in the Dutch city since shortly after his arrest helping assemble his legal team.In a birthday message, Sara Duterte said her father “knows he will face the ICC with the Filipino people”, adding that the support “makes the challenges he is facing today more bearable”.Another of the ex-president’s daughters, 20-year-old Veronica, as well as her mother, Cielito Avancena, said they failed to get inside the prison to see him this week — but remained hopeful.Veronica Duterte said her father had “always been a force to be reckoned with, even in his sunset days”, in a post on social media.”We will make certain that his legacy lives on”, she added. – ‘Systematic attack’ -The ICC chief prosecutor’s application for his arrest said Duterte’s alleged crimes were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population” in the Philippines.”Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated,” the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.But Sara Duterte has said that the once wildly popular president is convinced that what the ICC did “was wrong and there is no case to begin with”.Duterte’s arrest on March 11 and rapid handover to the international tribunal came on the heels of his family’s bitter falling out with his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos.Cracks began to appear in their alliance soon after Marcos teamed up with Sara Duterte to sweep the presidential and vice presidential elections in May 2022.The vice president quit her cabinet post as education secretary after being denied the defence portfolio, while Duterte himself began calling Marcos a drug addict.Last month, Sara Duterte was impeached by a pro-Marcos House of Representatives on charges that include an alleged assassination plot against the president.The outcome of her Senate trial will likely depend on the number of seats her allies win in May 12 mid-term elections.One of her party’s candidates, former Philippine police chief and drug war enforcer Ronald Dela Rosa, says he expects to be arrested by the ICC next.The ex-president faces a six months wait inside the United Nations’ Scheveningen prison before his next scheduled court appearance on September 23.The court session will confirm the charges against him and allow him to contest the allegations.Chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has disclosed 181 unspecified items of evidence to the defence, led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.The prisoner is only allowed two visits per day — a lawyer and a family member, the vice president said.”I urged him to write a book and then when you get out, we’ll sell it and make money out of it,” she said.

Nicholas Pooran slammed 70 off 26 balls as Lucknow Super Giants easily chased down a target of 191 to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday for their first win of the new IPL season.Pooran’s power-packed innings featured six fours and six sixes, as the West Indies batsman ruthlessly took the attack to the opposition on a flat Hyderabad pitch.Lucknow, captained by the most expensive player in the IPL, India’s Rishabh Pant, lost Aiden Markram early before Mitchell Marsh (52) and Pooran put on 116 for the second wicket in barely seven overs together.Pooran eventually fell lbw to Australia captain Pat Cummins, leaving his team on 120-2 in the ninth over.Pant walked in with Lucknow well positioned but made a scratchy run-a-ball 15 before miscuing a full toss from Harshal Patel, following Marsh back after he was removed earlier by his international team-mate Cummins.Lucknow also lost Ayush Badoni cheaply but Abdul Samad hit an unbeaten 22 off eight deliveries to help them cruise to victory with 23 balls remaining.Lucknow had won the toss and restricted Hyderabad to 190-9 despite a brisk 47 at the top of the order from Travis Head.Shardul Thakur, who wasn’t initially picked up by any franchise and only received a call-up from Lucknow as an injury replacement, finished with his best IPL figures. Thakur took 4-34 and landed a key double blow by dismissing opener Abhishek Sharma (6) and Ishan Kishan (0) with successive balls in the third over. Head steadied the innings after Hyderabad slipped to 15-2 before a searing Prince Yadav delivery rearranged his stumps. Thakur, who won the player-of-the-match award, complained that the “bowlers get very little (help) on these kind of pitches” in the IPL. “Even in the last game pre-match I said that pitches should be prepared in such a way that the game hangs in the balance for batters and bowlers. Especially after the ‘impact player’ rule, it’s not fair on the bowlers,” he complained.Several Hyderabad batsmen made starts but couldn’t go on, with Nitish Kumar Reddy contributing 32 and Aniket Verma blasting a quick 36 after Heinrich Klaasen (17) was run out in bizarre fashion at the non-striker’s end.As Yadav attempted to take a low return catch offered by Reddy, he deflected the ball onto the stumps with Klaasen out of his crease. Cummins dispatched three of the four balls he faced over the rope in a whirlwind knock of 18, but it came in vain as Hyderabad suffered their first loss.Pant said that the win was “definitely a big relief”. “We don’t want to get too high after winning and too low after losing, taking it one match at a time,” said Pant. He also praised Pooran, insisting the team “just want to give freedom to him. I like that freedom too. But we’ve just told him to go express himself and he’s batting phenomenally for us”. 

Myanmar’s junta chief will attend a regional summit in Bangkok next week, a spokesman said Thursday, a rare foreign trip outside close allies Russia and China, as he struggles to tame a spiralling civil war.Min Aung Hlaing will travel to the Thai capital for a gathering of leaders of South Asian countries plus Myanmar and Thailand, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters, saying the visit offered “potential for peace”.Since seizing power in a February 2021 coup, he has mostly only travelled to his government’s main arms supplier Russia, and its main economic partner and political backer China.The surprise announcement came after Min Aung Hlaing insisted that a planned election will go ahead despite the conflict, in a speech to thousands of soldiers and dignitaries at the annual Armed Forces Day parade.”He will attend. We are also trying to meet with leaders of BIMSTEC members countries separately,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told journalists in the capital Naypyidaw.”We expect to get potential development for Myanmar, potential for peace, potential for our economic development through this meeting.”He also said that Aung San Suu Kyi, whose civilian government was ousted in the 2021 coup, was in “good health”.She is serving a long prison sentence on various criminal charges her supporters say were cooked up to keep her out of politics.Leaders from the seven BIMSTEC countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — are to meet for talks in Bangkok on Friday next week.The event will mark a diplomatic breakthrough for the junta, which has seen its leaders and ministers shunned from meetings of the main Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc in the wake of the coup.ASEAN has led diplomatic efforts to end the Myanmar crisis, so far to no avail.- December poll plan -In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing condemned the array of armed groups fighting his rule as “terrorist insurgents” driven by “warlordism”, after a year of seismic battlefield defeats.Russian-made jets roared overhead and troops paraded though high-security Naypyidaw for the event, which has become progressively smaller in the four years of civil war since the military deposed Suu Kyi’s civilian government.Min Aung Hlaing said the authorities were sticking to a plan announced earlier this month that a long-promised election would go ahead — despite much of the country being outside junta control.The authorities are “making provisions to hold the general election this coming December”, he said.The junta has lost the key northern town of Lashio — including a regional military command — and swathes of the western Rakhine state since the last Armed Forces Day. It has also sought to conscript more than 50,000 people.The civil war pits the junta’s forces against both anti-coup guerillas and long-established ethnic minority armed groups.- Increasing air strikes -More than 3.5 million people are displaced by the conflict, half the population live in poverty and one million civilians face World Food Programme aid cuts next month following US President Donald Trump’s slashing of Washington’s humanitarian budget.At the same time, trade sanctions have isolated Myanmar, making it increasingly dependent on China and Russia for economic and military support.”The military has never been defeated this severely,” said Jack Myint, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.However, observers agree its grip on the centre is secure for now.”The reality is they still have a superior supply of arms,” said Myint, and they “don’t have to defeat everyone to maintain control”.- Beijing’s influence -The past year has shown how strong a hand Beijing holds in Myanmar, with a willingness to play off the military and its opponents to pursue economic opportunities and stability on its borders, according to analyst Myint.After public concern spiked in China over scam centres in Myanmar, thousands of workers were repatriated at Beijing’s demand.Western governments have said no election held under Myanmar’s current military government can be free or fair.But cliques in the junta are pushing for polls to weaken Min Aung Hlaing’s position amid discord over his handling of the conflict, according to one US-based Myanmar analyst speaking on condition of anonymity.Min Aung Hlaing serves as both acting president and commander-in-chief but he would have to relinquish one of those roles to hold an election.”Min Aung Hlaing does not want to hold the election,” the analyst said. “But generals close to him have warned that the situation is getting worse.”