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MOSCOW: Russia wants to strengthen military ties with Myanmar, its state media reported on Friday (March 26), after a meeting between senior defense officials and a junta condemned by Western countries for killing hundreds of civilian protesters.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin met Friday in the capital, Naypyidaw, with the leader of the junta, Major General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a coup on February 1 that sparked weeks protests across the country and a deadly response from security forces.
MIF said Myanmar was a reliable ally and strategic partner of Russia in Asia, state-run TASS said, during a visit a day before a large parade to mark Myanmar Armed Forces Day, the most popular military event. prestigious.
READ: Myanmar activists call for Armed Forces Day protests
In a video shown on the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda television, Fomin is seen shaking hands and receiving a medal and ceremonial sword from Min Aung Hlaing in a meeting room full of military officers in green uniforms.
“You, distinguished senior general, participated in our parade last year, our parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War,” TASS a Fomin quoted the leader of the board as saying, referring to World War II.
“And this visit of ours is an answer to yours.”
WESTERN INDIGNATION
The visit is the strongest signal yet of Russia’s support for the new military rulers in Myanmar, amid outrage in the West and deep concern among its Asian neighbors, some of whom have condemned violence against civilians and urged the restoration of the Aung San Suu Kyi elections. Government.
READ: Southeast Asian nations urge to stop violence in Myanmar
The United States, Britain, Australia and the European Union have imposed sanctions on the ruling military council and the army’s vast business network.
Defense ties between Russia and Myanmar have grown in recent years, with Moscow providing military training and university scholarships, as well as selling weapons to military personnel blacklisted from several Western countries for alleged atrocities against civilians.
Russia is the source of at least 16 percent of the weaponry acquired by Myanmar from 2014 to 2019, according to a 2020 study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Yadanar Maung, a representative of the Justice for Myanmar campaign group, said Russia was legitimizing the junta and called on the international community to impose a global arms embargo.
“Russia is complicit in the army’s campaign of terror against the people,” Yadanar Maung said.
“We are dismayed that Russian officials are traveling to Myanmar to legitimize the illegal military junta.”
