The Rohingya make up two-thirds of the roughly 190,000 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, according to United Nations data.
Analysts say Min Aung Hlaing has been at the centre of successive crises which have caused mass upheaval for Myanmar’s citizens, displacing them at home and abroad.
He was chief of the military in 2017 when it led a violent crackdown on the Rohingya, forcing them to flee Myanmar en masse – mostly to neighbouring Bangladesh, but also to Malaysia.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing whether the campaign constituted genocide, a charge the military has always denied.
Min Aung Hlaing’s 2021 coup then sparked a civil war which has riven the country, killing more than 100,000 across all sides according to conflict monitor ACLED.
Unfruitful peace efforts have been led by the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.
Following the 2021 military coup, ASEAN has excluded Myanmar from high-level meetings as it has yet to make meaningful progress on the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus to end hostilities. The consensus calls for an immediate cessation of violence, constructive dialogue among all parties, the appointment of a special envoy to mediate talks, humanitarian assistance and the envoy’s access to all parties concerned.
Malaysia marks the fifth ASEAN nation to host Min Aung Hlaing since he transitioned to ruling the country as a nominally civilian president.