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15 Aug 2024 12:49AM
(Updated: 15 Aug 2024 12:50AM)
YANGON: Myanmar’s embattled junta chief and China’s foreign minister on Wednesday (Aug 13) discussed security along their shared border where ethnic minority armed groups have captured territory from the Myanmar military in recent weeks, junta media said.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta but analysts say it also maintains ties with ethnic armed groups fighting the military in Myanmar’s northern Shan state.
The meeting in the capital Naypyidaw was the first between Wang Yi and Min Aung Hlaing, chief of the junta that seized power in 2021 when it deposed the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The two discussed “stability of the border regions,” according to a junta readout of the meeting.
Myanmar’s northern Shan state has been the site of repeated clashes since late June after an alliance of ethnic rebel groups renewed an offensive against the military along a vital trade highway to China.
Shan state borders China’s Yunnan province and is a vital piece of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Min Aung Hlaing and Wang also “discussed and exchanged views openly regarding … free and fair multi-party general elections,” according to the junta.
The junta has promised to hold fresh polls but critics say they will be a sham.
The junta has pushed back a timetable for elections multiple times and last year banned the widely popular National League for Democracy (NLD) of Suu Kyi.
CLASHES
Clashes between the military and ethnic armed groups in Shan state continued on Wednesday.
Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) fighters were battling junta troops in the Shan state towns of Hsipaw and Naungcho, its Major-General Tar Bhone Kyaw told AFP.
AFP has contacted the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), another group fighting in northern Shan for comment.
Earlier this month MDNAA fighters captured the military’s northeastern command in the town of Lashio, home to about 150,000 people.
The capture of the regional command – the first by opponents of the junta since the military’s 2021 coup – sparked rare public criticism of the top generals by its supporters.
Min Aung Hlaing later said the alliance was receiving weapons, including drones and short-range missiles, from “foreign” sources that he did not identify.
Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting, according to the junta and local rescue groups.
The junta and the ethnic armed groups have not released casualty figures.
Earlier Wednesday the junta said rumours top generals had detained Min Aung Hlaing in a new coup were “propaganda” spread by “traitors.”
On Tuesday several social media posts claimed that top generals had detained Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyidaw in a bid to change the junta’s top leadership.
The last top Chinese official to visit the isolated junta was former foreign minister Qin Gang, who held talks with Min Aung Hlaing in May last year.
