MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed \u201cpositive\u201d ties with Myanmar on Wednesday as he met with the country\u2019s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Russia\u2019s far eastern city of Vladivostok.
\n\u201cMyanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia… our relations are developing in a positive way,\u201d Putin said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
\nMin Aung Hlaing\u2019s visit comes as both governments face diplomatic isolation \u2014 Moscow for its February military intervention in pro-Western Ukraine, and Naypyidaw for a military coup last year.
\nAs Moscow\u2019s ties with the West unravel over Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to pivot the country toward the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
\n\u201cI am very proud of you, because when you came to power in the country, Russia, so to say, became number one in the world,\u201d Min Aung Hlaing told Putin, as quoted by a Kremlin statement that translated his remarks into Russian.
\n\u201cWe would call you not just the leader of Russia but a leader of the world because you control and organize stability around the whole world,\u201d he said.
\nThe two leaders \u201cfriendly and openly\u201d discussed cooperation and \u201cexchanged views on relations and the international situation,\u201d the Myanmar junta said in a statement.
\nSince the putsch that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s civilian government in February last year, Myanmar has faced Western sanctions and a downgrade in relations.
\nMyanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralyzed as the military regime struggles to crush resistance.
\nRussia and its ally China have been accused of arming Myanmar\u2019s junta with weapons used to attack civilians since the coup.
\nMore than 2,200 people have been killed in the crackdown, according to a local monitor.
\nDuring a trip to Naypyidaw in early August, Russia\u2019s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov backed the junta\u2019s efforts to \u201cstabilize\u201d the country and hold a national poll next year.
\nBut US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the international community to reject the junta\u2019s \u201csham elections.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed \u201cpositive\u201d ties with Myanmar on Wednesday as he met with the country\u2019s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Russia\u2019s far eastern city of Vladivostok. \u201cMyanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia… our relations are developing in a positive way,\u201d Putin said during the meeting on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10537,10536,633],"class_list":["post-282053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-min-aung-hlaing","tag-myanmar-junta-chief","tag-vladimir-putin"],"yoast_head":"\n