President Xi Jinping has met with Myanmar’s first State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in Beijing.
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Myanmar will hold a long-planned conference with armed ethnic groups later this month, as Suu Kyi targets peace as a prelude to rebooting the economy after her party won a landslide election victory.
Beijing was instrumental in shielding Myanmar’s former junta rulers from global opprobrium while Suu Kyi, now State Counselor, languished for years under house arrest as a democracy activist.
Suu Kyi also invited Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who held a red-carpet welcoming ceremony for her on Thursday, to visit Myanmar at his earliest convenience, and Li expressed gratitude for the invitation, the press release said.
The fate of a stalled $3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar funded primarily by Chinese energy interests has been a key concern during the visit. “So this time Myanmar is trying to seek more Chinese role in its economic development”, he said. It has pursued a charm offensive in Myanmar partly to push for construction to resume.
China has been pushing for work to restart on the dam, which under the original plans would have sent 90 percent of its power to China.
The dam is one of several Chinese-backed projects stalled due to protests by Myanmar citizens newly emboldened to speak out following democratic reforms, part of a larger backlash against China’s economic domination of its poor southern neighbor.
“To handle it well will help create a favorable condition for future trade and economic development between the two countries”, Zhao said. “Is there something that can be offered that meets the expectations, but does not create a lake the size of Singapore on the Irrawaddy?”
Xi said he hopes Suu Kyi’s five-day visit will boost “strategic cooperation between our two nations”. China has been involved previously in negotiations between the government and Kachin rebels, who have fought for decades in regions near the Chinese border. According to statements by the diplomat, the new government of Myanmar chose to establish an investigation committee to find a solution to resolve the bilateral interests regarding the Myitsone dam.
“China, as a neighbour which shares a very important border along which there are many ethnic armed groups, is important in its goodwill”, she was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
But Dai had no doubt which country Myanmar will look to for building infrastructure – China.
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Experts say that under Suu Kyi’s guidance, Myanmar has adopted a pragmatic foreign policy whereby the government is trying to balance diplomatic relations with its two giant neighbours, India and China.
