TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Myanmar junta slams US summit snub, lauds ties with China
Washington has repeatedly denounced the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year, and the US government has imposed sanctions on top figures in Myanmar's military.
Change Size
US President Joe Biden participates in the US-ASEAN Special Summit at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2022. The summit is being held to commemorate 45 years of US-ASEAN relations and strengthen ASEAN’s central role in delivering sustainable solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
M
yanmar's junta has slammed the United States for snubbing it at a regional summit and meeting with opposition leaders, and instead lauded its ties with "powerful" China.
Washington has repeatedly denounced the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year, and the US government has imposed sanctions on top figures in Myanmar's military.
Myanmar was represented by an empty chair at a summit this week between US President Joe Biden and leaders of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc in Washington.
Members of a "National Unity Government" dominated by lawmakers from Suu Kyi's ousted party were however invited to Washington and met Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman -- but did not represent Myanmar in the talks.
The United States was "practicing double standards" by meeting with the NUG -- which is working to overturn the coup and has been declared a "terrorist" organisation by the junta, military spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP.
"In the Asia-Pacific region, China is a powerful country. Our country is dealing with and having relations with powerful China and India," he said.
China is a major ally of the junta and has refused to label the military's power grab a coup.
Last month, Beijing said it would help safeguard Myanmar's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity "no matter how the situation changes."
The junta is otherwise increasingly isolated on the international stage, with Cambodian leader Hun Sen the only foreign leader to visit since the putsch.
In February, its foreign minister was barred from attending an ASEAN foreign ministers' retreat over a lack of progress in defusing post-coup violence.
That same month, a UN expert on Myanmar said China -- along with Russia, another major ally -- was continuing to supply the military with weapons, including fighter jets and armoured vehicles.
More than 1,800 people have been killed in a military crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
