\n<\/p>\n
Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s visit comes shortly before military government holds national polls widely condemned as a sham.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Myanmar on a goodwill visit seen as lending support to the Southeast Asian country\u2019s military government in advance of a widely condemned national election set to be held next month.<\/p>\n Myanmar state media reported on Friday that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the country\u2019s self-installed de facto leader, met Lukashenko at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Naypyidaw.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThis visit demonstrated Belarus\u2019s goodwill and trust towards Myanmar and marked a historic occasion. It is the first time in 26 years of diplomatic relations that a Belarusian Head of State has visited Myanmar,\u201d military run outlet The Global New Light of Myanmar reported.<\/p>\n Lukashenko\u2019s arrival at a military airport in Naypyidaw on Thursday night saw him welcomed by senior figures from Myanmar\u2019s military government, including Prime Minister Nyo Saw, with full state honours and cultural performers.<\/p>\n After former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lukashenko is only the second foreign leader to visit Myanmar since its military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a coup on February 1, 2021.<\/p>\n The Belarusian leader\u2019s visit also comes just a month before the military is set to host national elections that many domestic and international observers have condemned as a sham. His visit is widely viewed as lending support to the polls, due to be held in late December, and which the military government has touted as a return to normalcy.<\/p>\n Following Lukashenko\u2019s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on Friday, The Global New Light also confirmed that Belarus plans to \u201csend an observation team to Myanmar\u201d to monitor the polls.<\/p>\n The leaders also agreed that \u201ccollaboration will also be strengthened in military technologies and trade\u201d, a day after the Myanmar-Belarus Development Cooperation Roadmap 2026\u20132028 was signed in Yangon.<\/p>\n Belarus state media quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov as saying that Myanmar has \u201csignificant potential in various industrial sectors\u201d, while Belarus has \u201cexpertise and modern technologies in mechanical engineering\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMyanmar plans to mechanise its agriculture, and we in Belarus produce a complete lineup of machinery and equipment. As our president says, no topics are off limits for our cooperation,\u201d Ryzhenkov said.<\/p>\n Belarus\u2019s government is widely regarded as authoritarian, with Lukashenko serving as the former Soviet state\u2019s first and only president since the office was established in 1994.<\/p>\n Along with major backers China and Russia, Belarus is one of the very few countries that have continued to engage with Myanmar\u2019s military leaders since the coup.<\/p>\n A popular protest movement in the immediate aftermath of the coup has since morphed into a years-long civil war, further weakening the Myanmar military\u2019s control over the fractured country, where ethnic armed groups have fought decades-long wars for independence.<\/p>\n Preparing for the polls, military government census takers in late 2024 were only able to count populations in 145 of Myanmar\u2019s 330 townships \u2013 indicating the military now controls less than half the country.<\/p>\n Other recent estimates place the military\u2019s control as low as 21 percent of the country\u2019s territory. Ethnic armed groups and the anti-regime People\u2019s Defence Force \u2013 which have pledged to boycott and violently disrupt the upcoming polls \u2013 control approximately double that amount of territory.<\/p>\n Amid geographic limitations and raging violence, as well as the Myanmar military\u2019s March 2023 dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s hugely popular NLD, critics have pointed to the absurdity of holding elections in such circumstances.<\/p>\n Preparing for the polls, military leaders carried out a mass amnesty on Thursday, pardoning or dropping charges against 8,665 people imprisoned for opposing army governance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s visit comes shortly before military government holds national polls widely condemned as a sham. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Myanmar on a goodwill visit seen as lending support to the Southeast Asian country\u2019s military government in advance of a widely condemned national election set to be held next month. Myanmar state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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