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Putin meets with Myanmar junta chief, hails ‘positive’ ties
"Myanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia [...] Our relations are developing in a positive way," Putin said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
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ussian President Vladimir Putin hailed "positive" ties with Myanmar on Wednesday as he met with the country's junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok.
"Myanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia [...] Our relations are developing in a positive way," Putin said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
Min Aung Hlaing's visit comes as both governments face diplomatic isolation – Moscow for its February military intervention in pro-Western Ukraine, and Naypyidaw for a military coup last year.
As Moscow's ties with the West unravel over Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to pivot the country toward the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
"I am very proud of you, because when you came to power in the country, Russia, so to say, became number one in the world," Min Aung Hlaing told Putin, as quoted by a Kremlin statement that translated his remarks into Russian.
"We would call you not just the leader of Russia but a leader of the world because you control and organize stability around the whole world," he said.
The two leaders "friendly and openly" discussed cooperation and "exchanged views on relations and the international situation", the Myanmar junta said in a statement.
Since the putsch that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in February last year, Myanmar has faced Western sanctions and a downgrade in relations.
Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralyzed as the military regime struggles to crush resistance.
Russia and its ally China have been accused of arming Myanmar's junta with weapons used to attack civilians since the coup.
More than 2,200 people have been killed in the crackdown, according to a local monitor.
During a trip to Naypyidaw in early August, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov backed the junta's efforts to "stabilize" the country and hold a national poll next year.
But United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the international community to reject the junta's "sham elections".
‘Under control’
The crisis in Myanmar is under control and the ruling military will do all in its power to hold elections next year as planned, providing the vote can be free from foreign interference, the junta said as quoted by Reuters.
Speaking to Russian news agency RIA in a rare interview published on Wednesday, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said it was too soon to discuss postponing the elections, tentatively slated for August next year, and the junta still had plenty of time to restore order.
"We promised that we would hold elections in the near future, and we are trying with all our might to fulfil this," Min Aung Hlaing said, according to a Russian translation.
"In addition, elections must be held without external pressure, otherwise they will not be fair and transparent. And we will carry out our own elections without external pressure."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since Min Aung Hlaing led a coup in February 2021 against Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's government, arresting its leadership and detaining thousands of activists and protesters.
Mass arrests, killings and allegations of systematic brutality by security forces have given rise to an armed resistance movement that the junta has struggled to put down. The United Nations has accused the military of mass killings and crimes against humanity, allegations it calls interference.
An analysis released on Monday by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, a group of independent international experts, concluded the military had stable control of just 17 percent of the country, with the rest contested or held by its opponents.
Min Aung Hlaing, who is in Russia attending an economic summit, said Myanmar was in the process of buying oil from Russia and paying in rubles, because it had difficulties using other currencies.
The junta has been barred from most regional summits and in its isolation has turned increasingly toward Russia for diplomatic support and more military hardware.
He said his country and Russia both wanted peace and stability and said Western nations were funding and arming "terrorists" in Myanmar, who he insisted were not gaining ground.
"The situation is under control. Last year there were many more incidents, they were of a greater magnitude. Since April of this year, their number and scale have been decreasing, albeit gradually, but significantly," he said.
