Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets Red Cross official

Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, after years of questions over the health and well-being of the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Suu Kyi has been in detention since February 2021, when an elected civilian government led by her was ousted by Myanmar’s military in a dawn coup, plunging the impoverished Southeast Asian nation into turmoil.

Since then, Suu Kyi’s exact whereabouts and health condition have been difficult to determine, with no foreign leader or envoy having publicly met with her despite requests for contact from countries in the region that have excluded Myanmar’s leadership from their summits.

Suu Kyi met with Arnaud de Baecque, Resident Representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Myanmar, in the capital Naypyitaw on Monday, government spokesperson Khine Khine Soe said in a message via Telegram.

The ICRC confirmed that a delegate had met with Suu Kyi, without naming the official, while her son described the visit as the first positive development concerning his mother in more than five years.

In one of four photographs provided by the Myanmar government spokesperson, Suu Kyi is seen dressed in traditional Burmese attire and standing unaided, shaking hands with de Baecque.

In another, they are seated in a sparsely furnished, wood-panelled room containing only two chairs and a desk.

A fourth photograph is a close-up of the cake, inscribed with “Happy Birthday Aunty Suu 19.6.2026”.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the location and the date when the pictures were taken. No earlier version of the pictures was found posted online before Monday.