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 leader to visit Moscow, plans space and nuclear meetings
The news came only days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing to keep pressure on Myanmar's junta, and saying China should be in agreement as he met democracy activists on a visit to neighbouring Thailand.
Change Size
In this file photo taken on July 19, 2018, Myanmar's Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, arrives to pay his respects to Myanmar independence hero General Aung San and eight others assassinated in 1947, during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs' Day in Yangon. Myanmar's military seized power in a bloodless coup on February 1, 2021, detaining democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi as it imposed a one-year state of emergency. (Agence France-Presse/Ye Aung Thu)
T
he head of Myanmar's military junta will visit Moscow and plans to meet the head of Russia's space agency as well as officials at the Rosatom nuclear agency, state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.
Russia's embassy in Myanmar told the Interfax news agency that Hlaing was in Moscow on a "private" visit.
"He plans to take part in the opening of a Myanmar cultural centre," it said, quoted by AFP.
Russian state media reported the military chief was also due to meet officials from Moscow's space and nuclear agencies.
The announcement of the visit comes only days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing to keep pressure on Myanmar's junta, and saying China should be in agreement as he met democracy activists on a visit to neighbouring Thailand.
In a meeting held off-camera to protect family members, the top US diplomat heard from young democracy activists from Myanmar, whose military in February 2021 tossed out the civilian government, slamming the door on a decade-long democratic transition nurtured by Washington.
Blinken acknowledged that the US strategy of sanctions on the junta has not borne fruit but promised that Washington was still focused, even as it puts a priority on combatting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"It's unfortunately safe to say that we've seen no positive movement and on the contrary, we continue to see the repression of the Burmese people," Blinken told reporters, using Myanmar's former name of Burma.
"We will continue to look for ways that we can, and other countries can, effectively put pressure on them to move back to the democratic path."
He called for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which in April 2021 reached a "consensus" with the junta that includes dialogue with the opposition, to "hold the regime accountable" over its pledges.
