Myanmar signs economic pact with ally China
Myanmar signs economic pact with ally China
RANGOON (Reuter): Myanmar has signed a broad economic and
trade cooperation agreement with its major ally China, official
media reports said yesterday, a move that comes soon after U.S.
sanctions on Rangoon.
The reports said China's visiting vice minister for foreign
trade and economic cooperation, Li Guo Hua, and Myanmar's
national planning and economic development minister, David Abel,
also agreed on Thursday to form a joint works committee for
cooperation.
No further details were provided.
"The significance of this agreement is it was signed soon
after the U.S. decided to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar,"
an analyst said.
"It can mean that the Chinese want to show the ruling State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) that they are
dependable in times of isolation," he said.
The United States in April announced a ban on all new U.S.
investments in Myanmar because of alleged human rights abuses by
the country's military rulers and repression of the democracy
movement led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
China is one of Myanmar's closest allies and is said to be its
biggest supplier of weapons.
Bilateral trade between the two countries totaled $500 million
in 1995, Chinese embassy sources said.
The Myanmar-China pact also comes ahead of a widely watched
meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign
ministers in Malaysia on Saturday to decide when Myanmar will be
permitted to join the regional grouping.
ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- has already decided to admit
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos as a group this year.
Malaysia, this year's ASEAN chairman, has pressed for the
three to be inducted at the group's annual ministerial meeting
scheduled for July 24-25. Another proposal would admit them at an
informal ASEAN summit in December.
The United States has asked ASEAN to delay Myanmar's entry
because of human rights concerns.