Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing meets Putin for first time since coup | Military News

Assembly between leaders underlines the 2 nations deepening relationship after Myanmar coup and Ukraine invasion.

Myanmar’s navy chief and coup chief Min Aung Hlaing has held his first, and long-awaited, assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an additional signal of the deepening ties between the 2 sanctions-hit nations.

Min Aung Hlaing, who seized energy from Myanmar’s elected authorities in a coup in February 2021, has visited Russia twice for the reason that coup — most not too long ago in July — with out securing an viewers with Putin.

He lastly did so on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Moscow-organised Jap Financial Discussion board (EEF), which is happening in Vladivostok, Russia’s most-eastern metropolis.

“Our relationships are creating positively,” the RIA information company, quoted Putin as saying in the course of the talks. Putin is just the second overseas chief to satisfy Min Aung Hlaing for the reason that navy’s energy seize.

Myanmar was plunged into disaster by the coup, which triggered large-scale protests and a nationwide motion of civil disobedience. Greater than 2,000 individuals have been killed within the navy’s crackdown on its opponents, and the regime’s refusal to observe a regional plan to finish the violence, in addition to worldwide sanctions, have left it more and more remoted and seeking to deepen its partnerships with long-term allies equivalent to Russia.

Moscow, in the meantime, can also be underneath stress over its invasion of Ukraine that began six months in the past.

The state-run World New Mild of Myanmar stated the chairman of the self-styled State Administration Council met Putin adviser Anton Kobyakov on Tuesday evening, publishing pictures on its entrance web page of the 2 delegations sitting reverse one another at a protracted desk.

Russia’s deputy minister for defence Alexander Fomin and senior navy officers from Myanmar had been additionally current. Fomin was an honoured visitor at Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day in March.

The delegations mentioned “constructing good relations nearly as good associates between the Russian Federation and Myanmar and (the) two armed forces,” the newspaper stated, noting that 2022 marked 75 years of diplomatic relations between the 2 nations.

The talks additionally coated wider financial cooperation together with direct flights between the 2 nations to spice up tourism and the oil and fuel commerce.

Myanmar had introduced in August plans to import Russian gasoline oil to ease a provide crunch. In Vladivostok, Min Aung Hlaing instructed Putin that Myanmar was able to pay for the imports in Russian roubles.

Russian navy assist, notably for the air power, has additionally been essential within the generals marketing campaign to crush resistance from anti-coup armed teams, often known as the Folks’s Defence Forces, in addition to extra established ethnic armed organisations which have been combating for political autonomy for many years.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations Particular Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, instructed the UN Human Rights Council earlier this 12 months that Russia was one in every of three states to have equipped weapons to Myanmar for the reason that coup, regardless of their use towards civilians. The others had been China and Serbia.

The navy took management of Myanmar the day that the nation’s new parliament was as a result of convene for the primary time for the reason that November 2020 elections, which had been received in a landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nationwide League for Democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation’s civilian chief, was the primary to be detained and faces a collection of instances in secretive navy courts the place she has already been discovered responsible of quite a few offences and jailed for a cumulative 20 years.