Myanmar’s military-backed government yesterday released two photos of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as she received a package from Britain’s King Charles III.

Presidential spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe announced on Facebook that Home Ministry officials met the 81-year-old and handed her two gardening books, as well as “one sealed envelope, and a sealed diplomatic communication” from the British monarch. The two books were “The Land Gardeners – Soil to Table” and “SOIL: The World at Our Feet,” the latter of which appears to be connected to an exhibition that was held at Somerset House in London earlier this year. The meeting was subsequently reported by state media, albeit with no further details about the meeting.

The announcement was accompanied by the release of two photos that show Nobel laureate sitting with two officials at a table in a wood-paneled room – the same where she was photographed meeting with an official from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in August.

The images of Aung San Suu Kyi that were released yesterday were among just a handful that have been made public by the military since her removal in a coup in February 2021. Since then, she has been in the military’s custody, and is currently serving an 18-year prison term for a range of far-fetched charges, including incitement, corruption, election fraud, and violation of Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act.

The announcement of the delivery of the package from King Charles III, which could easily have been kept secret, comes amid a push by the new military-backed government to normalize its relations with important international partners, in particular the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The 11-nation bloc has barred Myanmar from its summits since late 2021, over its failure to implement its Five-Point Consensus plan for resolving the country’s post-coup conflict, which involved pledges to cease violence, allow humanitarian access, and engage in political dialogue involving “all parties” to the country’s conflict.

In recent months, Min Aung Hlaing has visited five of ASEAN’s 11 member states – Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia – with Indonesia and Brunei possibly to come.

Given her iconic status, Aung San Suu Kyi is an important form of leverage. Shortly after coup leader Min Aung Hlaing took office as president in April, his administration announced Suu Kyi’s relocation from prison to house arrest, alongside a broader amnesty of political prisoners. It also reduced her sentence by one-sixth.

While refusing a request from Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, ASEAN’s special envoy, for a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the authorities in August allowed her to meet with Arnaud de Baecque, the ICRC’s resident representative in Myanmar, and released four photos of the meeting. The meeting, her first publicized meeting with a foreign official since the coup, also sought to address the concerns of critics, including Suu Kyi’s son Kim Aris, about her condition in custody.

Given Naypyidaw’s desire for normalization, and the symbolic role that Aung San Suu Kyi still plays in Myanmar’s politics, it is likely that Myanmar state media will continue to drip-feed news about its most famous detainee.