Russia signed an investment agreement with Myanmar on Friday that it said could open up new opportunities for Russian energy companies in the Southeast Asian country.
“We especially note the readiness of the Myanmar side to attract Russian companies to the development of offshore oil and gas fields,” Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said after signing the agreement in St. Petersburg with Kan Zaw, the Myanmar regime’s minister of investment and foreign economic relations.
Russia said the deal would help accelerate projects including in Myanmar’s Dawei Special Economic Zone, where a 660 MW coal-fired thermal power plant is being developed.
Russia has been building closer ties with Myanmar’s regime in Naypyidaw, which seized power in 2021 by toppling the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held in jail since Feb. 1, 2021.
Myanmar is struggling with internal conflict, an economy in tatters, widespread hunger and a third of the nation’s 55 million people in need of aid, according to the U.N.
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing met Russian President Vladimir Putin in March and signed an agreement on construction of a small-scale nuclear plant in Myanmar. A month earlier, the two countries signed a memorandum on construction of a port and oil refinery in the Dawei Special Economic Zone, located in southeastern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region.
Friday’s agreement will also facilitate cooperation in areas including transport infrastructure, metallurgy, agriculture and telecommunications, the Russian government said.
REUTERS
