China’s Ambassador to Myanmar, Chen Hai, has met the junta’s foreign minister, Than Swe, to discuss Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing was not invited to the BRI’s 10th anniversary event last week in Beijing, despite heavy junta lobbying.
Chen proposed cooperation on “eight major steps” announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRI forum to enable both countries to prosper, according to the embassy’s Facebook page.
They discussed Chinese support for the regime’s development efforts and international cooperation, particularly with ASEAN, according to junta media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and many other Asian and African leaders attended the BRI forum.
Min Aung Hlaing has not been invited to Beijing or ASEAN summits since the 2021 coup.
The junta’s Transport and Communications Minister General Mya Tun Oo and fellow cabinet minister Ko Ko Hlaing attended the Beijing forum, according to the regime.
Beijing has recently stepped up its projects in Myanmar with several Chinese visits by junta ministers.
China has 597 projects in Myanmar, valued at US$21.9 billion, junta investment and foreign economic relations minister Dr Kan Zaw told the Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Corridor Governors Forum in Kunming in August.
China accounts for 23.5 percent of Myanmar’s foreign investment, the majority of which is in the electricity sector, the minister added.
The neighbors are also pushing for train links between landlocked southern China and Mandalay and Rakhine State, providing Chinese access to the Indian Ocean. The rail project is a major part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and the wider BRI.
At the Comprehensive Transport Investment Promotion Conference in Beijing in September, Mya Tun Oo said the regime actively participates in the BRI and Mekong-Lancang Cooperation projects to establish Myanmar as an economic corridor.
Chinese investment is greeted in Myanmar with skepticism as Chinese-backed projects like the Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Region and oil and gas pipelines and an oil terminal at Kyaukryu Township in Rakhine State have harmed residents while China reaps the profit.
