China’s foreign minister meets Myanmar junta chief: Military
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China “stands with Myanmar on the international stage”, Foreign Minister Qin Gang (left) is reported to have told Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
PHOTOS: AFP, REUTERS
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YANGON - China’s foreign minister met Myanmar’s junta chief on Tuesday, the military said, the highest-ranking Chinese official to meet the country’s top general since a coup more than two years ago.
Myanmar has been riven by violence since the putsch that ousted Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s government
China is a major ally and arms supplier of the internationally isolated junta and has refused to condemn the military takeover.
China “stands with Myanmar on the international stage”, Foreign Minister Qin Gang told junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing, according to a Burmese-language statement from the junta’s information department.
China’s foreign ministry did not offer any immediate comment following the meeting.
Mr Qin – the most senior Chinese official to meet Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar since the coup – will remain in the country until Thursday, according to the junta.
Myanmar state media footage showed the Chinese official being received by Gen Min Aung Hlaing in a meeting hall decked with gold curtains and red wallpaper.
The two discussed “diplomatic relations, friendly cooperation, the recent situation in Myanmar, border trade, investments and cooperation on energy and electricity”, the junta statement said.
Mr Qin also met Myanmar’s military-appointed Foreign Minister Than Swe, the statement added.
Several Beijing-backed infrastructure projects are slated to run through northern Myanmar and link China’s landlocked Yunnan province with the Indian Ocean.
Beijing also backs and arms several ethnic rebel groups
Some of these groups have clashed repeatedly with the Myanmar military
Mr Qin’s predecessor, Mr Wang Yi, visited the country in July last year, and met his Myanmar counterpart but not the junta chief.
China appointed a special envoy to Myanmar, Mr Deng Xijun, in December, who has met the junta leader at least twice since then, as well as ethnic rebel leaders.
On Tuesday, Mr Qin visited the China-Myanmar border, calling for “friendship and cooperation” between the two countries.
After his Myanmar visit, Mr Qin will travel to India for a meeting of foreign ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Chinese foreign ministry said without providing details on his itinerary. AFP
