King Charles’s Books Reach Detained Aung San Suu Kyi in Rare Photos

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military-backed government said Monday that two books sent by King Charles III had been delivered to detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with a sealed envelope and diplomatic correspondence.

President Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in February 2021 as the army chief, has sought to end Myanmar’s international isolation following Suu Kyi’s ouster and imprisonment. Although he has faced sanctions, he has more recently projected a return to normalcy after Myanmar held an election in 2025 and increased its engagement with regional neighbors.

The Presidential Press and Information Bureau said in a statement released on its Telegram channel that two Home Affairs Ministry officials delivered the materials to Suu Kyi in the capital, Naypyitaw, that morning.

The books were identified as The Land Gardeners: Soil to Table, written by British authors Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld and focused on the relationship between healthy soil and food, and Soil: The World at Our Feet, the catalog for an environmental exhibition in London.

Charles, a long-standing advocate for environmental protection and sustainable agriculture, met Suu Kyi in London in 2017, when he was Prince of Wales and she was Myanmar’s state counsellor. Suu Kyi has served several prison sentences and periods of house arrest and has spoken about the influence of literature on her life during earlier detentions. She is also known to enjoy fiction and detective novels.

Monday’s statement included two photographs of the 81-year-old leader wearing a traditional pale green blouse and skirt, seated across a small table from two men in white shirts in a wood-paneled room.

The statement did not provide details about the correspondence or explain how the books were sent.

The meeting lasted about 10 minutes, according to the statement, which did not disclose the location or describe what was discussed.

The announcement offered another rare glimpse into Suu Kyi’s circumstances while she remains detained. She is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Naypyitaw on charges that her supporters and human rights groups say are politically motivated.

She has not been seen publicly since her detention began, and her whereabouts and condition have remained largely undisclosed.

In August, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Suu Kyi, marking her first known contact with an independent international humanitarian organization since her detention in February 2021.

The international community, including Myanmar’s fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has called for Suu Kyi’s release and for authorities to permit access to or engagement with her as part of efforts to resolve the country’s political crisis. The government has rejected those calls.

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