The United States has quietly begun restoring contacts with Myanmar's military-backed government, raising questions about whether the European Union's policy of diplomatic isolation can hold. Two rounds of talks have taken place since September, and State Department representative Michael Vance reportedly met Myanmar officials in Naypyitaw and later in Tokyo earlier this month.
Washington is said to be seeking action against online scam centers, the release of imprisoned American businessman Adam Castillo, and possibly access to Myanmar's rare-earth resources. China, a US rival, currently dominates the market for those valuable minerals.
The EU has taken a different line. It still rejects the legitimacy of the junta and has not been swayed by the 2025/2026 election that ended with military chief Min Aung Hlaing becoming president, since the military retains control of the political system. After the February 2021 coup, Brussels suspended direct financial aid to the government, imposed targeted sanctions and sharply cut diplomatic engagement. The sanctions now cover 105 individuals and 22 entities tied to the military, and in April they were extended for another 12 months.
The bloc has continued to provide humanitarian help to displaced communities and Rohingya refugees and to back civil society groups. It also chose not to withdraw Myanmar's preferential trade access, citing concern for workers, especially the mostly young women in the garment industry. Bilateral goods trade was worth about €4 billion ($4.46 billion) last year, up from €3.4 billion in 2019.
The civil war that followed the coup has killed an estimated 100,000 people, and UN data shows more than 4 million people are internally displaced. An EU spokesman told DW the bloc "continues to uphold its policy of non-recognition of the current military regime" because of ongoing violence against the population. The EU is also "closely monitoring" the discussions of the US, Japan, ASEAN countries and others with the regime, and supports ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus, which has yet to be fully implemented.
ASEAN's own stance appears to be shifting. It had barred Myanmar's military leaders from its highest-level meetings after they failed to implement the peace plan, but Thailand and other members voice growing frustration. Last week, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow welcomed Washington's renewed engagement and suggested ASEAN would hold substantive talks on Myanmar's future at next month's summit in Manila.
Myanmar's authorities are also working to end their isolation. Min Aung Hlaing gave Time magazine an interview in September, his first with a major Western publication since the coup. On October 22, Burma Campaign UK accused the British government of a "significant shift in approach" after the Foreign Office hosted Win Zeyar Tun, charge d'affaires of Myanmar's embassy in London, at an ASEAN gathering. Intelligence Online reported that the regime's envoy in Brussels, Khin Thidar Ay, has sought contacts with European politicians, including Czech MEP Ondrej Dostal.
Kristina Kironska of Palacky University Olomouc said the EU has little reason to follow Washington, whose approach "appears to be pursuing specific interests" such as rare earths and cybercrime. She noted that the most important rare-earth operations are now held by ethnic rebels such as the Kachin Independence Organization, so it is unclear what talks with the junta can deliver. Abandoning its principles for a transactional approach would harm EU credibility, she said, but "isolation has achieved relatively little," so the question is with whom and under what conditions to engage.
Sabe Soe, director of Burma Centre Prague, said Brussels must stay a credible defender of democratic change while keeping a meaningful voice in talks on Myanmar's future. She suggested keeping sanctions on military leaders and their businesses, expanding diplomacy through ASEAN and the UN, tying any easing to humanitarian access and political freedoms, and exploring economic engagement in areas run by resistance forces. For now Brussels shows little appetite for a basic rethink, though that could change as more governments reopen their doors to Myanmar's generals.
