Foreign relations of Myanmar
say that the human rights abuses along the gas pipeline are the direct responsibility of TotalEnergies and its American partner Chevron Corporation[citation needed] with aid and implementation by the Tatmadaw.
[16] In 2021, Belarus was the only country to vote against UN General Assembly resolution calling Myanmar military to stop violence, release arrested protesters and restore democracy.
"The two leaders highlighted that one of the greatest challenges at present for both countries and their respective regions – south-east Asia and Europe – is migration", read a statement released after their meeting.
[43] The political relations between the United States of America and Myanmar began to face major problems following the 1988 military coup and the junta's outbursts of repression against pro-democracy activists.
[46] However, the US re-imposed targeted sanctions following the 2017 Rohingya genocide[47] and the 2021 myanmar coup d'état,[48] focusing on individuals and companies involved in atrocities and human rights violations.
[49] In 1988, the United States downgraded its level of representation in Myanmar from Ambassador to Chargé d'Affaires after the Burmese government's lethal crackdown on the 8888 Uprising and its failure to honor the results of the 1990 election.
[74] In 2011, The Guardian newspaper published leaked diplomatic cables information that revealed that the US funded some civil society groups in Myanmar who eventually forced the government to suspend the controversial Chinese Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy river.
[75] According to media reports in 2010, the Embassy of the United States in Yangon is the site of an electronic surveillance facility used to monitor telephones and communications networks jointly run by the Special Collection Service.
In April 2007, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry parliamentary secretary Ahmad Shabery Cheek said that Malaysia and other ASEAN members had decided not to defend Myanmar if the country was raised for discussion at any international conference.
[citation needed] Recently, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made it clear that dialogue encouraging political change is a priority for Thailand, but not through economic sanctions.
[101] In the late 1960s, due to Ne Win's propaganda that the PRC was to blame for crop failures, and the increasing number of ethnic Chinese students supporting Chairman Mao Zedong, by carrying the Quotatians from his books, anti-Chinese riots broke out in June 1967.
However, after 1986, China withdrew support for the CPB[104] and began supplying the military junta with the majority of its arms in exchange for increased access to Burmese markets and a rumoured naval base on Coco Islands in the Andaman Sea.
[105] After 2015, China increased considerably its scope of engagement with Myanmar by playing a more active role in the peace process, developing large infrastructure projects and promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the country.
[106] In July 2019, UN ambassadors from 50 countries, including Myanmar, have signed a joint letter to the UNHRC defending China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region.
As a result of increased Chinese influence in Myanmar as well as the safe haven and arms trafficking occurring along the Indo-Burmese border, India has sought in recent years to refurbish ties with the Union of Burma.
[110][111] Numerous economic arrangements have been established including a roadway connecting the isolated provinces of Northeastern India with Mandalay which opens up trade with China, Myanmar, and gives access to the Burmese ports.
These covert operations have created a complex web of alliances and enmities, as India navigates its interests while attempting to maintain a semblance of cooperative relations with the Myanmar government.
[114][115] While the involvement of India's private sector has been low and growing at a slow pace, both governments are proceeding to enhance co-operation in agriculture, telecommunications, information technology, steel, oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons and food processing.
To these ends, India's external intelligence agency, R&AW, cultivated Burmese rebel groups and pro-democracy coalitions, especially the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
In 2006 a petition by 500 Bangladeshi politicians and intellectuals, including Sheikh Hasina and Kamal Hossain, expressed support for Aung San Suu Kyi and called for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.
[123] After winning elections in 2008, Sheikh Hasina reiterated her position on Burma's pro-democracy struggle, calling for an end to the detention of Suu Kyi and Burmese political prisoners.
Despite border (both territorial and nautical) tensions and the forced migration of 270,000 Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist Burma in 1978, relations with Bangladesh have generally been cordial, albeit somewhat tense at times.
Many Rohingya refugees, not recognised as a sanctioned ethnic group and allegedly suffering abuse from the Burmese authorities,[125] remain in Bangladesh, and have been threatened with forced repatriation to Myanmar.
[141] Today, the two maintain good relations with Sri Lanka presenting diplomatic credentials to Myanmar's State Administration Council (SAC_ despite international condemnation against the SAC for its war.
[150][a] The bilateral relationship with North Korea dramatically collapsed in 1983, after Pyongyang allegedly sent three agents to Yangon to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, who was making a state visit to Burma.
[153] In September 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives announced that it was ceasing all trade ties with Myanmar in response to the government's treatment of the Rohingya people in Rakhine State.
[162][163][164][165] But in 2006 a divided United Nations General Assembly voted through a resolution that strongly called upon the government of Myanmar to end its systematic violations of human rights.
[166] In January 2007, Russia and China vetoed a draft resolution before the United Nations Security Council[167] calling on the government of Myanmar to respect human rights and begin a democratic transition.
"[168] The issue had been forced onto the agenda against the votes of Russia and the China[169] by the United States (veto power applies only to resolutions) claiming that the outflow from Myanmar of refugees, drugs, HIV-AIDS, and other diseases threatened international peace and security.
[170] The following September after the uprisings began and the human rights situation deteriorated, the Secretary-General dispatched his special envoy for the region, Ibrahim Gambari, to meet with the government.
