Two years after the generals grabbed power in Myanmar, and a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, questions are rising as to whether the fallout of the isolation and immiseration endured by Naypyitaw and Moscow has conjoined to weigh on Asia’s strategic environment.

The London-based think-tank Chatham House two weeks ago published satellite images taken in January 2023 by Maxar Technologies that appear to show fresh construction activity on Great Coco, in the Myanmar-controlled northern part of the Andaman chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal.