Former deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong has spoken out against the reported military coup in Myanmar and called for the US and China to work together to prevent a major democratic regression.

This came after Reuters reported that Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with Myanmar President Win Myint and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids.

The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing...