China to promote bilateral relations with Myanmar

China to promote bilateral relations with Myanmar

Agence France-Presse, Beijing

China will promote bilateral relations with Myanmar to ensure stability and development even as sanctions are leveled against Yangon by the United States and other nations, state media reported on Friday.

In a meeting on Friday with Myanmar's deputy senior general Maung Aye, the junta's number-two leader, President Hu Jintao said China will work with Myanmar to enhance bilateral relations in line with the principle of "treating neighboring countries as friends and partners," Xinhua said.

China, one of the few countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Yangon, has repeatedly refused to apply pressure on its smaller neighbor to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained May 30 during clashes between her supporters and a junta-backed mob.

Beijing sees friendship with Myanmar as an important strategic asset, offering China its only direct access to the Indian Ocean.

"The Chinese government and people value China-Myanmar friendship and will... join efforts with Myanmar in implementing the two countries' joint statement so as to further promote bilateral relations," Hu was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"As a friendly neighbor, China hopes that Myanmar will remain stable, its ethnic groups will live in harmony, its economy will keep growing and the Myanmar people will live in happiness," Hu said, expressing confidence that the junta will "make the situation in the country develop in a positive and constructive direction".

Cooperation between the world's most populous country and its smaller neighbor has expanded in recent years in areas including trade, border management and the fight against narcotics.

Thirty Myanmar police officers on Friday began a month-long training course at a Chinese police academy in Yunnan province, on the southwestern Chinese border with Myanmar. The training program has been in place since 2001 after a joint decision by China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, and has already trained 25 Myanmar officers.

On Wednesday, Beijing denounced U.S. sanctions against Myanmar announced in the wake of Suu Kyi's detention.

"The current domestic situation in Myanmar is the country's internal affairs, and China will not agree to foreign interference or to sanctions and isolation," State Councilor Tang Jaixuan, a former foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.