On March 3, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived at Bagan airport in central Myanmar and was greeted by senior military officers and officials. /Myanmar Ministry of Information/AP
Published on Tuesday 2022.07.05 12:13 JST
(CNN) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Myanmar on the 5th and urged military officials who seized power in the coup to engage in dialogue with the opposition. The international community expressed concern about the situation in the country, where violence continued to escalate and the human rights situation continued to deteriorate.
It was Wang’s first visit to the country since the coup last February. It will be the highest-level visit by a Chinese official since Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing met with President Xi Jinping in 2020.
“I urge all parties in Myanmar to engage in political dialogue within the constitutional and legal framework to restore the democratic transition process,” Wang said in a statement issued by the foreign ministry, expressing hopes for “political and social stability” in the country.
“We will work together to support Myanmar’s efforts to revitalize Myanmar’s economy, improve people’s livelihood, and protect the rights and interests of grassroots people,” he added.
Mr. Wang arrived at Bagan Central Airport on the 3rd and was greeted by senior military officers and officials. He will attend a meeting attended by foreign ministers from neighboring Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, but it is unclear whether a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled.
China, one of the few countries currently backing Myanmar, has also refused to condemn the 2021 coup that toppled pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In April, he pledged to support military officials staging a coup “regardless of how the situation evolves”.
China is Myanmar’s largest trading partner. It has invested billions of dollars in mining, oil and gas development in the natural resource-rich country. Along with Russia, it also supplies weapons to the military, according to the United Nations.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains imprisoned in Myanmar amid reports of plans to execute pro-democracy activists and members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which the United Nations says constitutes a “blatant violation of the rights to life, liberty and security of the person”. Condemned.
