China tells Myanmar military it wants closer ties

BEIJING: China wants closer ties with Myanmar’s military to help protect regional peace and security, a senior Chinese general told the visiting head of the southeast Asian country’s army.

China and Myanmar have had close diplomatic and economic ties for years, including increasingly in the strategically important oil and gas sectors, and China has offered its support to its southern neighbour, also known as Burma, throughout a crisis over its treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State, most to neighbouring Bangladesh, since a Myanmar military crackdown in response to attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents in August.

The US on Wednesday for the first time called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya ‘ethnic cleansing’ and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for ‘horrendous atrocities’.

Meeting in Beijing, Li Zuocheng, who sits on China’s Central Military Commission, which runs its armed forces, told Senior General Min Aung Hlaing that China’s development and prosperity were an important opportunity for Myanmar’s development, China’s Defence Ministry said in a statement.

“In the face of a complex and changeable regional security situation, China is willing to maintain strategic communication between the two countries’ militaries,” Li was cited as saying in the statement issued late on Wednesday.

China wanted greater contacts between the two armed forces and deeper training and technical exchanges and to promote border defence cooperation to ensure peace and stability along their common border, Li added.

China has been angered by fighting between Myanmar’s military and autonomy- seeking ethnic minority rebels close to the Chinese border in recent years, which has at times forced thousands of villagers to flee into China. — Reuters