Myanmar and Russia have signed a five-year military cooperation pact, Moscow said Tuesday, sealing an alliance analysts say has been crucial to the junta’s grip on power.
Myanmar’s military snatched power in a 2021 coup, triggering a civil war, and has relied on backing from Russia as well as neighbouring China to keep its forces stocked.
Air strikes by Russian-made jets have kept surging rebel factions at bay, while also frequently targeting civilians in attacks some conflict monitors say amount to war crimes.
Russia’s defence ministry announced the new pact lasting until 2030 after a Monday visit to Myanmar by the Kremlin’s top security official, Sergei Shoigu, state news agency TASS said.
Myanmar state media also confirmed the deal for “enhancement of defence cooperation” on Tuesday, but, like their Russian counterparts, gave scant details about what it entails.
While the junta’s use of Russian jets is well documented, some conflict monitors say Myanmar has also shipped gear to Russia to bolster its stalling attempt to invade Ukraine.
“Russia fully supports the Myanmar leadership’s course to protect territorial integrity and strengthen national sovereignty and security,” Shoigu told junta officials, according to TASS.
Many Western nations have considered Myanmar a pariah state since the military coup five years ago, and Russia likewise an outcast since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Western pressure on Russia and Myanmar will not cease,” Shoigu said.
“You can fully count on Moscow’s comprehensive assistance, including in the international arena.”
Myanmar’s junta has just completed a month-long election — touting the exercise as a return to democracy and a chance for peace after five years of military rule and civil war.
But it was blocked from vast areas controlled by rebels, and was widely criticised abroad for excluding jailed democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, which won the last elections in 2020.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party — described by many analysts as a military proxy — won in a walkover, taking more than 80 percent of seats, according to official results last week.
But with rebel factions rejecting the vote as an illegitimate exercise intended to rebrand and reinforce the rule of the armed forces, analysts say it is unlikely to stymie the civil war.
