For example, both countries were nations that had gained independence from Britain in 1948 and had social democratic regimes initially led by charismatic figures like U Nu and David Ben-Gurion.

They were initiated by the Minister of Cooperation and general secretary of the ruling Burma Socialist Party (BSP), Kyaw Nyein who led a high-level Burmese delegation to Israel in 1952.

Kyaw Nyein considered Israel a kindred country with a social democratic party in power and was interested in its expertise in arms production and co-operative agriculture communities, Kibbutzim.

[3] Kyaw Nyein's Israel initiatives led to a friendlier pro-Israel attitude by Burma's United Nations delegation and marked the beginning of mutual visits in military, economic and other fields.

[4] In May 1955, when U Nu, Burma's first Prime Minister since the country gained independence, traveled to Israel, it was the first visit of an Asian head of government to the Jewish state.

[5] Various prominent Israeli figures visited Rangoon in the 1960s including Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Golda Meir.

This is your historic mission.After the 1962 Burmese coup d'état by the Tatmadaw, Prime Minister U Nu was placed in detention and replaced by General Ne Win.

Ne Win overthrew the democratic Union Parliament of U Nu and established Burma as a one-party socialist state.

With his rule, Ne Win brought significant isolationism to Burma, shutting its doors to the outside world, including Israel to a degree, whose relations waned to just military arms trade.

[10] and in September 1954 a technical delegation of the Israeli Air Force went to Burma to help train local technicians in the maintenance of the planes.

In September 2017, a petition against Israeli arms sales to Myanmar over human rights violations against the Rohingya minority was brought before the Supreme Court of Israel.

[2] On the other hand, Israel has, on several occasions, expressed support for pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the leading opposition to the Myanmar military junta.