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belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko arrived in myanmar on a goodwill visit, state media there reported on Friday, becoming only the second foreign leader to visit the Southeast Asian country since it came under military rule in 2021.
The visit comes just a month before elections in Myanmar that have been described by critics as neither free nor fair. Lukashenko’s goodwill visit is being seen by critics as a show of support for the elections.
Since the takeover, Belarus has been a major supporter and supplier of Myanmar’s military government. China And RussiaIt is one of the few countries visited by the head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who traveled there in March and June, Like Myanmar, Belarus’s government is widely viewed as authoritarian,
Myanmar’s military government has been rejected and sanctioned by many Western countries for committing major human rights violations in an attempt to crush resistance to military rule that arose after the takeover and ouster of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The only other foreign leader to visit Myanmar since 2021 was the then Prime Minister of Cambodia that senAs chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2022.
A report in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Lukashenko was welcomed by Myanmar Prime Minister Nyo Saw and other cabinet members with full state honors and cultural artists as he arrived at the military airport in the capital Naypyitaw on Thursday night.
The report said Lukashenko will meet with Min Aung Hlaing to discuss strengthening friendship and cooperation in various fields, and agreements and memoranda of understanding will be signed between the two countries during the visit.
During Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Belarus in March, Lukashenko pledged to support the military-organized election and promised to send observers to monitor it.
Critics have condemned the planned election as a sign of normalizing the military’s grip on power and several opposition groups, including armed resistance forces, have said they will try to derail the election.
Justice for Myanmar, a rights advocacy group that seeks to expose the military’s financial underpinnings, said in a statement Thursday that Belarus has provided Myanmar’s military with weapons, equipment and training that builds the military’s technical capacity and its domestic arms industry.
The group’s statement said the transfer from Belarus includes Myanmar air defense operational command systems, radar technology and ground-based missile systems.