Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the head of the Burmese junta, met with India’s visiting army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor in Napyidaw on Monday.
According
to Burma’s state-run-newspapers, Than Shwe received Gen Deepak Kapoor
and his delegation along with other top ranking junta generals
including Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, Gen Shwe Mann, Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo.
Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief of Burmese military intelligence, called
Military Affairs Security, was also in the welcoming delegation,
reflecting the importance of counter insurgency and ethnic issues along
the Indo-Burma border.
Before the meeting, Than Shwe, the
Indian army chief met with Maung Aye on Monday morning, along with the
head of Military Ordnance, Lt-Gen Tin Aye, which underscored the
importance of India as a supplier of military hardware to the regime.
A few days earlier, Deepak Kapoor told India’s Time Now
television that India’s army is capable of countering any Chinese
military threat. India has accused China of incursions into its
territory during the past two years.
Commenting on China, he
said: “The Indian army is capable of looking after the defense of the
country. So, it would take care of any aggression. Certain offensive
actions are also part of the overall defense. We do not have any
designs on anyone else's territory, but we would like to defend our
territory.”
Following the Indian general’s visit, observers
noted that the military regime also received US Sen. James Webb in
August. Both actions are seen as countering Beijing’s influence in the
region and an effort to reduce Burma’s dependency on China.
“Traditionally
Burmese leaders, including former prime minister U Nu, have been
concerned about China’s influence and threats as the two countries have
had historical conflicts. So Snr-Gen Than Shwe needs more friends to
balance Beijing’s rising influence in Burma,” said Aung Naing Oo, a
Burmese political analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Two
months ago, Than Shwe met the US senator who supports an end to US
sanctions on the junta. He discussed China’s influence in Burma when he
met Than Shwe and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
during his visit.
Webb later wrote in a The New York Times
column that Western sanctions “have allowed China to dramatically
increase its economic and political influence” in Burma, “furthering a
dangerous strategic imbalance in the region.”
“If Chinese commercial influence in Myanmar continues to grow, a military presence could easily follow,” he said.
About
a week after Webb’s visit, the Burmese junta captured territory of the
Kokang ethnic cease-fire group on the Sino-Burma border on August 24.
Beijing has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to ethnic group
conflicts in Burma. The junta’s Kokang offensive drove as many as
37,000 Kokang Chinese refugees to seek safety in China.
Irrawaddy