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 Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Myanmar’s rare earth deposits have gradually become something of an idée fixe for certain elements of the Trump administration, as it seeks to reduce its heavy reliance on China, which controls a large part of the world’s supply of these critical minerals.

In July 2025, Reuters reported that administration officials had “heard competing proposals” for changes to U.S. policy aimed at gaining access to the rare earth deposits in Kachin State. “Among the proposals,” it reported, “are one advocating talks with Myanmar’s ruling junta to get a peace deal with the Kachin Independence Army rebels and another calling for the U.S. to instead work directly with the KIA without engaging the junta.”

Among those advancing these proposals was none other than Adam Castillo, who was present during a July 17 meeting at Vice President J.D. Vance’s office in Washington.

It is hard to know how far things will proceed from here. The Reuters report makes clear that Vance “has also met in person and virtually with the democratic opposition and ethnic armed groups fighting the military,” and the State Department told the news agency that its engagement with the Min Aung Hlaing administration “does not diminish its relationships with other groups.”

Any step toward further re-engagement with Naypyidaw, let alone a dropping of U.S. sanctions against Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials, is likely to prompt strong criticism. While the new quasi-civilian government has attempted to project an image of control and normalcy, the political situation in the country remains febrile. The post-coup civil war, which continues despite the inauguration of the new government, has now killed more than 100,000 people and displaced 3.8 million more. In a report released yesterday, the U.N. Development Programme stated that more than two in three people in Myanmar are now in “multidimensional poverty” or are at risk of falling into it, due to the “simultaneous collapse” of the healthcare and education systems, and the atrophying of the economy.

Since taking office as president in April, Min Aung Hlaing has embarked on a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at consolidating key partnerships and normalizing Naypyidaw’s relationship with key partners, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indeed, the former general has just departed from Malaysia, where, in another notable policy reversal, he was accorded full state honors by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. He has also visited Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand in recent months, in pursuit of Myanmar’s full reintegration into the 11-nation bloc.

Re-engagement with the U.S., even to a limited degree, would be another diplomatic victory for Min Aung Hlaing. Whether this would end up yielding benefits for the U.S., however, remains unclear. In his article for CFR, Kurlantzick argued that the U.S. succesfully gaining access to Myanmar’s rare earths “is hard to imagine,” given their proximity to the Chinese border and their location in regions “where Beijing wields dominant influence.”

Beyond this, Kurlantzick argued, “Engaging with the regime now will simply show powerful autocrats that their collaboration works, and democracies accede. And it will cause more misery for the citizens of one of the most benighted places in the world.”