In-depth daily coverage of armed conflicts, military operations, and security developments across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania including Myanmar, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Strait, and the South China Sea.
The Asia-Pacific theater on Thursday, March 26, 2026, Day 27 of Operation Epic Fury, faced compounding pressure across every active front. In Myanmar, the Tatmadaw prepared Armed Forces Day 81 celebrations while its air force continued systematic strikes that killed at least 27 civilians in Sagaing Region alone in the six preceding days. North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in Pyongyang. In the South China Sea, China's Coast Guard issued a formal demand that the Philippines stop "provocations," while a PLA Navy frigate came within dangerous proximity of a Philippine warship near Thitu Island. Around Taiwan, the PLA conducted 6 aircraft sorties and a report confirmed China had stationed converted J-6 drone aircraft at bases flanking the Taiwan Strait. With the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed, energy emergencies persisted across the theater, the Philippines announced a major domestic gas strike, and Japan released additional strategic reserves. Japan confirmed the deployment of approximately 1,000 troops to the Philippines for Balikatan 2026, the first deployment of Japanese combat troops to the Philippines since World War II.
March 26 was the eve of Myanmar's 81st Armed Forces Day, and the junta held formal pre-celebration ceremonies in Naypyidaw. Vice-Senior General Soe Win visited retired officers and full-dress rehearsal parades took place, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar. The ceremonies stood in contrast to ongoing systematic violence against civilians. DVB reported that junta airstrikes killed at least 27 civilians in Sagaing Region between March 20 and 25: 17 civilians died when jets struck a monastery in Katha Township on March 20, 6 were killed in Ayardaw Township on March 22, and 4 more died in Myaung Township on March 23. On March 25, a Yak-130 fighter jet from Tada-U Air Base struck near Haw Zaung village in Phaungpyin Township with no active fighting reported in the area, according to MoeMaKa. In Mandalay Region, junta forces arrested 5 civilians from In Pin Gyi village, forced them into PDF uniforms, tortured and killed them, and dumped the bodies, which residents discovered on March 24. On March 23, junta columns burned more than 800 houses in Min Te village in Taungtha Township, leaving only four structures standing, per MoeMaKa.
Resistance forces continued operations. On March 24, PDF Strategy 22 ambushed a retreating 50-man junta column near U To Bama Su village in Minhla Township, Bago Region, killing 2 soldiers and wounding 3. In Magway Region's Salin Township, joint resistance forces struck a junta patrol with a landmine on March 23, killing 2 soldiers. In Mon State, the Mon State Revolutionary Force conducted four drone strikes between March 9 and 21 alongside KNLA Battalion 27. The NUG's People's Defence Force remained active across multiple fronts. MoeMaKa's March 26 domestic news digest confirmed ongoing operations in Sagaing, Magway, and Ayeyarwady regions overnight.
The fracture of the Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched Operation 1027 in October 2023 remained the dominant structural shift in the conflict as of March 26. The MNDAA had launched a coordinated offensive against the TNLA over control of Kutkai in northern Shan State on March 14, deploying four columns with drones and heavy artillery. By March 15 the MNDAA captured Kutkai's tactical operations center. A ceasefire was brokered by March 18 and held as of March 26, but the alliance that had threatened the junta's core positions was effectively split. The MNDAA reopened the Muse-Lashio Highway for the first time in years, restoring the vital China border trade corridor, according to Mizzima and Burma News International. Foreign Policy analysis published March 24 assessed that China played a behind-the-scenes role in engineering the inter-alliance split to reassert leverage over northern Shan State. ACLED recorded 11 cases of resistance infighting in early 2026, nearly double the 6 recorded in the same period of 2025.
The junta's parliament announced that the presidential selection process would begin March 30, with Min Aung Hlaing widely expected to transition from military commander to nominal civilian president. The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar characterized the move as an "absurd rebrand" of military rule in civilian dress. A severe fuel crisis continued gripping the country, with gasoline reaching 10,000 to 15,000 kyats per liter in remote areas, compounded by the Iran war's disruption of Myanmar's Iranian jet fuel supply chain, according to MoeMaKa. An Al Jazeera investigation published March 24 documented 5,912 junta airstrikes since the 2021 coup, with civilian-targeted strikes escalating from 9 in 2021 to 1,140 in 2025. The UN Special Adviser on Myanmar issued a statement calling Myanmar "at a crossroads" and urging the international community not to abandon civilians there, per UN News.
China's Coast Guard issued a formal statement on March 26 through spokesperson Liu Dejun demanding the Philippines "immediately stop provocations and smear campaigns" near Scarborough Shoal, according to China.org.cn. The CCG said it had conducted "routine rights-protection and law-enforcement training" and accused Philippine fishing vessels of converging on the training area under the pretext of fishing. The statement followed the CCG's unprecedented live-radio broadcast of a "clearing operation" on March 24 specifying four coordinates in the shoal's southern portion. Philippine Coast Guard surveillance counted 6 CCG vessels, 20 Chinese maritime militia ships, and 1 PLA Navy warship operating in the vicinity, while over 20 Filipino fishing boats reported harassment, according to Philstar.
Near Thitu Island (Pag-asa) on March 25, a PLA Navy missile frigate bearing bow number 532 closed at dangerous proximity on the Philippine landing ship BRP Benguet (LS507), forcing crew to take evasive action to prevent a collision. Philippine Western Command spokesperson Colonel Nep V. Padua confirmed the "unsafe and unprofessional maneuver," according to the Manila Bulletin. This followed AFP Chief General Romeo Brawner Jr.'s March 24 disclosure that a Chinese corvette (bow number 622) had locked fire-control radar on the Philippine guided-missile frigate BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-6) near Sabina Shoal on March 7, an act the AFP described as hostile, according to the Manila Bulletin and Defense News.
The Philippines and France signed a Visiting Forces Agreement in Paris on March 26, making France the first European nation to hold such an agreement with Manila, expanding a network that already includes the United States, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand, according to Global Banking and Finance. The Chinese Embassy in Manila stated that its "door to dialogue" on joint South China Sea oil and gas exploration remained open but demanded Manila "demonstrate sincerity," according to Philstar. President Marcos separately announced a successful gas strike at the Camago-3 well in the Malampaya field, producing up to 60 million standard cubic feet per day, per the Philippine News Agency. Satellite imagery confirmed China's continued expansion of Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands, with reclamation exceeding 15 square kilometers, per the Indo-Pacific Defense Forum.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense reported 6 PLA aircraft sorties, 10 PLAN vessels, and 2 official ships operating around Taiwan during the 24-hour period ending 6 AM on March 27. Four of the six sorties crossed the Taiwan Strait median line into Taiwan's southwestern and eastern Air Defense Identification Zone, according to ANI News. The ROC Armed Forces responded with combat air patrols, Navy vessels, and coastal missile activations.
A Reuters and Mitchell Institute report published March 27 confirmed China had stationed obsolete J-6 supersonic fighters converted into attack drones at six air bases near the Taiwan Strait, five in Fujian Province and one in Guangdong. PLAAF incursions into Taiwan's ADIZ had decreased approximately 46.5 percent since January 2026, with 17 days of zero activity between February 15 and March 15. Analysts attributed the reduced air tempo to the upcoming Trump-Xi summit rescheduled to May 14 and 15, China's ongoing military anti-corruption purge, and possible strategic recalibration. PLAN naval presence had not decreased over the same period, according to the American Enterprise Institute. A Chinese military journal published March 26 urged development of an air-based missile interceptor system, citing lessons from Operation Epic Fury and the deployment of US Typhon missiles to the Philippines and Japan, according to the South China Morning Post. China's Taiwan Affairs Office had separately indicated it offered Taiwan a guaranteed energy supply in exchange for agreeing to peaceful reunification talks, leveraging the Hormuz closure as a coercion instrument, per the American Enterprise Institute.
Kim Jong Un and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in Pyongyang on March 26, formalizing the bilateral relationship. Lukashenko had arrived March 25 to a ceremony featuring white-horsed cavalry, flag-waving children, and a 21-cannon salute. Both leaders, who are close allies of Vladimir Putin and have backed Russia's war in Ukraine, declared relations were entering a "fundamentally new stage," according to Al Jazeera. Lukashenko gifted Kim a VSK-type assault rifle. The treaty covered cooperation across agriculture, education, healthcare, science, and media, according to Prensa Latina and CP24.
The summit built on Kim's address to the Supreme People's Assembly on March 22 and 23, in which he pledged to "irreversibly" cement North Korea's nuclear status, characterized South Korea as the "most hostile" state, and cited Operation Epic Fury as proof that denuclearization would be suicidal, according to NPR. Kim vowed to maintain "prompt and precise" nuclear response posture. North Korea's most recent direct provocation was the KN-25 barrage of 10 missiles fired on March 14 during US-South Korea Freedom Shield exercises, which Kim personally oversaw, according to The Diplomat and USNI News. The Choe Hyon, North Korea's first 5,000-ton destroyer, had conducted cruise missile tests on March 4 and 10. Seoul's Defense Intelligence Agency has reported approximately 33,000 containers of weapons delivered to Russia, per The Defense Post.
South Korea rolled out its first mass-produced KF-21 fighter jets on March 25, with President Lee Jae Myung calling them a step toward self-reliant defense. Japan confirmed deployment of the upgraded Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles to Camp Kengun in Kyushu by March 31, according to The Diplomat and Stars and Stripes. North Korea warned the deployment would cross a "red line." Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, at her March 25 weekly briefing, characterized US-South Korean exercises as "open preparation for war," per Pravda Japan.
In the Philippines, internal defense operations against the New People's Army continued. Three high-ranking NPA leaders were killed in a March 21 clash in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, and two more were neutralized in Surigao del Sur on March 22, according to the Daily Tribune and PIA Caraga. The AFP confirmed it had neutralized 413 NPA members and supporters between January 1 and March 5, 2026. President Marcos signed Republic Act 12317 on March 25, resetting the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary elections to September 2026, according to the Manila Bulletin. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned on March 26 against US plans to fund an ammunition assembly line in the Philippines, calling it destabilizing, per the China-Global South Project.
In Indonesia, the Papua conflict remained active. The TPNPB released three Indonesian hostages between March 18 and 19 while issuing a "final warning" to Jakarta. Indonesia had tripled troop numbers in Yahukimo following 23 security incidents in early 2026, compared to 3 in the same period of 2025, according to Indonesia Business Post. TPNPB fighters killed two Smart Air pilots during a landing at Korowai Batu airstrip in February. In Thailand, peace talks with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional had been stalled for more than 13 months following the January 11 coordinated bombings of 11 PTT petrol stations across three southern provinces, according to BenarNews. The Thailand-Cambodia border ceasefire from December 27, 2025 remained technically in effect. Thailand successfully negotiated safe passage for the Bangchak tanker through the Strait of Hormuz on March 25, while Bangkok continued to seek information about three Thai sailors missing since the March 11 projectile attack on the Thai-flagged vessel Mayuree Naree, according to The Diplomat.
Day 27 of Operation Epic Fury saw the United States extend its pause on Iran energy infrastructure strikes, with President Trump stating that "talks are ongoing," according to CNN. The Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed. The Japan Times reported that Japan, South Korea, China, and Southeast Asian nations were each managing worst-case energy scenarios through emergency reserve releases, alternative supplier negotiations, and domestic demand restrictions. The IEA's March 2026 Oil Market Report cited the Hormuz closure as the largest single supply disruption since at least 1973. UN News reported Middle East war shockwaves rippling through Asia-Pacific fuel and supply chains. The Asian Development Bank announced an emergency financial support package for developing member countries on March 25.
The redeployment of US assets from Asia to the Middle East continued to concern allied governments. Defense News reported South Korean concern that the Iran war could force permanent shifts of US missile defense assets away from the peninsula. Japan confirmed it would send approximately 1,000 troops to the Philippines for Balikatan 2026 exercises, according to Pravda Japan. The AUKUS submarine program received a $1 billion US foreign military sales package cleared March 23 and 24, though 19FortyFive published analysis raising concerns about shipyard capacity and delivery timelines. Chatham House published analysis arguing the Iran war should accelerate security cooperation among US Pacific allies. Australia's defence minister held formal consultations with New Zealand on March 17 affirming the Pukpuk mutual defense treaty with Papua New Guinea and advancing Pacific Island security partnerships, according to CSIS. The Pacific Islands Forum's Security Outlook Report warned of a "polycrisis" of overlapping security pressures, with Pacific Island nations particularly exposed to Hormuz fuel supply consequences, according to PINA. China's state-owned ships were being permitted to transit the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian authorization, as Iran declared the waterway open to "peaceful ships," per the Christian Science Monitor.