Myanmar's junta chief will attend a regional summit in Bangkok next week, a spokesman said Thursday, a rare foreign trip outside close allies Russia and China, as he struggles to tame a spiraling civil war.

Min Aung Hlaing will travel to the Thai capital for a gathering of leaders of South Asian countries plus Myanmar and Thailand, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters, saying the visit offered "potential for peace."

Since seizing power in a February 2021 coup, he has mostly only traveled to his government's main arms supplier Russia, and its main economic partner and political backer China.