Russian warships visit Myanmar for planned joint naval exercises

Junta-run media reported on Monday that five Russian naval vessels arrived in Yangon the previous day, ahead of scheduled drills with the Myanmar navy. The ships, including four corvettes and a replenishment tanker, will participate in “the second Myanmar-Russia joint maritime security exercise”, according to the regime-controlled outlet Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM). The two countries first carried out maritime security exercises together, involving both warships and aircraft, in November of last year in the Andaman Sea west of Myeik, Tanintharyi Region. Some 800 officers and other naval personnel that arrived in Yangon’s Thilawa Port on Sunday would “visit famous places in Yangon, as well as take part in friendly sports competitions between the two countries and carry out harbour phase exercises,” according to the report. While Myanmar’s military coup of 2021 provoked the European Union, United States, and other Western powers to impose sanctions on the military’s generals and their network of arms suppliers, cronies, and associated businesses, Russia has remained one of the Myanmar regime’s chief international allies. The junta generals have expressed support for Russian foreign policy since the coup, including Russia’s invasion of and ongoing war in Ukraine. Along with China, Russia supports the Myanmar junta’s plan to hold elections, a move condemned as illegitimate by the regime’s opponents in Myanmar and the United States government. Russia has agreed to build a small nuclear power plant in Myanmar and provide training in nuclear technology to Myanmar military officers. Russia is also one of the Myanmar military’s chief suppliers of arms and equipment. A large share of the military hardware used by junta forces against both armed and civilian opponents is imported from Russia, including the aircraft used in the infamous massacre in Pa Zi Gyi, Kanbalu Township in April 2023. While meeting with junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in the junta administrative capital of Naypyitaw in March of this year, Russia’s deputy defence minister Aleksandr Fomin said Russia planned to hold more than 50 “events of military cooperation” with Myanmar’s military in 2024, according to reports from the Russian state media agency TASS.

Russian warships visit Myanmar for planned joint naval exercises

Russia has been one of the Myanmar junta’s staunchest international allies since the 2021 military coup, with Myanmar generals in turn supporting Russian foreign policy including the war in Ukraine

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