PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The leader of Myanmar’s military-backed government was in Cambodia on Friday to meet with its leaders in his latest effort to normalize relations with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as critics warn the visit could weaken the bloc's collective efforts to address Myanmar’s conflicts.
Min Aung Hlaing has stepped up his engagements to normalize diplomatic relations and secure international legitimacy since he was sworn in as president in April following an election that critics say was designed to cement the military’s hold on power.
The outreach is part of an attempt to rebuild regional ties that deteriorated after Min Aung Hlaing ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government in February 2021 while serving as army chief.
Friday’s trip is Min Aung Hlaing’s fourth visit to an ASEAN member state as he seeks to restore his standing within the 11-member bloc, to which Myanmar and Cambodia belong.
Min Aung Hlaing faced years of diplomatic isolation following his 2021 takeover and was barred from top-level ASEAN meetings for failing to comply with the bloc's peace plan for Myanmar. The plan called for an end to violence, dialogue among all parties, mediation through an ASEAN envoy, humanitarian aid and access for the envoy to engage all relevant parties.
In his inauguration speech, Min Aung Hlaing pledged to restore normal engagement with ASEAN and to work to strengthen international relations.
He has traveled to India, China, Laos, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia and most recently, Vietnam, where he met with leaders and sought to attract foreign investment through business forums.
State-run MRTV television said Min Aung Hlaing landed at Techo International Airport in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, on Friday morning.
He is expected to meet during his two-day visit with Hun Sen, the Cambodian Senate president, Prime Minister Hun Manet and other senior officials.
Cambodia played a notable role in ASEAN’s efforts to resolve conflicts in Myanmar especially in 2022, when then-Prime Minister Hun Sen, as the bloc's rotating chair, visited Naypyitaw and met with Min Aung Hlaing in an effort to revive peace talks, becoming the first foreign leader to visit Myanmar after the military takeover.
The Khmer Movement for Democracy, a movement formed by Cambodia’s opposition leaders in exile, condemned the visit Wednesday, saying it must not become another step in Min Aung Hlaing’s attempt to circumvent ASEAN’s diplomatic pressure on him.
“Min Aung Hlaing cannot be allowed to use Phnom Penh as a diplomatic back door into ASEAN,” Mu Sochua, the president of the KMD said in the statement. “He does not possess the democratic legitimacy that the red-carpet treatment of a head of state implies."
The human rights organization Fortify Rights called on Cambodia to cancel the visit rather than provide political legitimacy.
The group also urged Cambodian authorities to arrest Min Aung Hlaing and surrender him to the International Criminal Court if a warrant is issued, recalling that the court’s prosecutor requested an arrest warrant against him in 2024 over alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar.
In this photo released by Myanmar President Office, Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing, waves upon his departure to Cambodia, at the Naypyitaw international airport Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Myanmar President Office via AP)
In this photo released by Myanmar President Office, Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing, right, shakes hands with Lower House Speaker Khin Yi, third left, upon his departure to Cambodia, at the Naypyitaw international airport Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Myanmar President Office via AP)
In this photo released by Myanmar President Office, Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing, right, shakes hands with Vice President Nyo Saw upon his departure to Cambodia, at the Naypyitaw international airport Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Myanmar President Office via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.
Friday's milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims' names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.
For others it's an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decades-long trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.
Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn't make it home.
Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father's affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.
“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can," he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.
On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The impacts brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military's fortresslike headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation's capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.
“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trumpsaid at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on Sept. 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon's anniversary ceremony Friday.
Vice President JD Vance is expected at the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, while other administration officials are headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.
Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire's Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University's football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu's 9/11 memorial.
Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where relatives read all the victims' names, punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline. For the first time, this year's ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.
It's a reminder of how the attacks' long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.
The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington's longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. military found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.
The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.
So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something.”
Sept. 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies. But amid the national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.
In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city's first Muslim mayor. Yet he is facing some criticism for planning to attend the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.
Some complaints came from Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited among other things past remarks that some of Mamdani's political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending.
Mamdani, a Democrat, responded this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims' families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.
Sept. 11 isn't a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.
Instead, they will simply display the time.
Phillip Flood, 48, watches as the Tribute in Light is tested over the skyline of lower Manhattan, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks to FDNY commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, right, during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Members of the FDNY march with flags during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
An American flag flies, with the lower Manhattan skyline in background, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
