A senior Thai military officer and the junta’s defense minister also met to discuss border security, junta media reported.

Cheap and deadly, motorised paragliders have claimed the lives of two dozen civilians in resistance-held territory across central Myanmar in recent weeks.

Justice For Myanmar urged Thai prosecutors to apply to the courts for arrest warrants for Col. Saw Chit Thu, Lt-Col Colonel Mote Thone and Maj. Tin Win.

Together with India and Pakistan, Myanmar accounts for the lion’s share of internet shutdowns worldwide, leaving other tinpot dictatorships in the dust.

Regional bloc’s latest peace mission bypassed the junta chief in bid to get the Five-Point Consensus back on track but blamed revolutionary groups for breaking trust.

Bertil Lintner looks at the often devious ways in which China cemented the pauk-phaw or kinship relationship to become the dominant foreign power in Myanmar, sidelining all others.