Myanmar’s junta has established a “Nuclear Technology and Information Center” in cooperation with Russian vitality agency Rosatom State Corp. within the nation’s industrial capital Yangon, as a part of what observers say is the regime’s long-running dream of acquiring nuclear weapons.
The opening of the knowledge heart follows an settlement signed in September between the junta and Russia’s State Atomic Power Company to collectively assess constructing a small reactor in Myanmar.
The junta introduced on the time that it could use nuclear vitality for civilian functions, however Myanmar’s political opposition and navy analysts have expressed concern that the know-how could possibly be leveraged militarily, given the nation’s ongoing inner armed battle and widespread standard opposition to the regime following its February 2021 coup.
Junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and Rosatom Director Normal Alexey Evegenievich Likhachev attended a gap ceremony for the brand new heart on Monday, throughout which Min Aung Hlaing famous that nuclear know-how “can be used in all sectors” and that the navy regime is assembly with specialists from each Myanmar and Russia to debate “building nuclear infrastructure.”
The identical day, Myo Thein Kyaw, the junta’s minister of science and know-how, and Russia’s Likhachev signed an intergovernmental cooperation settlement on 14 areas of nuclear utilization. Particulars haven’t been made public, however Rosatom advised the Russian media that the 2 sides will “work together to implement a nuclear power plant project in Myanmar” in line with the settlement signed Monday.
Regardless of claims by the junta that it plans to make use of nuclear vitality for peaceable functions, specialists advised RFA Burmese that the most recent spherical of cooperation with Russia is a part of the regime’s secret plan to construct a nuclear arsenal.
“They may be telling the people that it’s for civilian purposes, such as electricity generation, but I am sure they will also be trying at the same time to possess nuclear weapons,” stated former Capt. Kaung Thu Win, who defected from Myanmar’s navy following the coup and joined the nation’s armed resistance.
“They will publicly announce that it’s for civilian use, but they will secretly be pursuing nuclear weapons. They are no doubt exploring how they can weaponize [the technology] for their advantage.”
Kaung Thu Win stated that whereas the navy has lengthy sought to develop into a nuclear energy, “it’s going to take time.”
Nonetheless, he added, the junta’s latest overtures to Russia counsel it might be making an attempt to fast-track its nuclear ambitions with a purpose to solidify its maintain on energy.
Within the two years because the navy coup, Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia thrice to debate nuclear initiatives.
‘The people will not benefit’
Thien Tun Oo, the manager director of Myanmar’s Thayninga Institute for Strategic Research, made up of former navy officers, advised RFA it’s unsuitable to imagine that the pursuit of nuclear vitality know-how contains plans to acquire weaponry.
“Most people picture weapons in their minds when they talk about ‘nuclear,’ but that is an incorrect assessment,” he stated.
“Countries with bad diplomatic relations with Myanmar use it as an excuse against us, questioning what might happen if Myanmar possesses nuclear technology,” he stated. “But experts in western countries already understand whether Myanmar can go to that extreme or not.”
![Military junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing watches the signing of the agreement between Myanmar and Russia for nuclear cooperation by the junta’s Minister for Science and Technology Myo Thein Kyaw [left] and Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear agency, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, in Yangon. Credit: Myanmar military](http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/nuclear-02082023170437.html/eng_bur_nucleardream_02082023-2.jpeg/@@images/4607ff46-4912-4d91-a3d3-47064d2beb4f.jpeg "ENG_BUR_NuclearDream_02082023.2.jpeg")
The navy has stated that it’s going to comply with security, safety and emergency response pointers in line with requirements set by the Worldwide Atomic Power Company when constructing nuclear infrastructure.
However Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the workplace of shadow Nationwide Unity Authorities President Duwa Lashi La stated that any type of nuclear know-how is harmful within the arms of a regime that’s utilizing fighter jets, helicopters, and different trendy weapons towards its personal residents.
“The people will not benefit from this project,” he stated. “The only question becomes whether it will create more risk to public safety.”
On the very least, Kyaw Zaw stated, the most recent spherical of cooperation between the 2 sides reveals that the junta “is in a situation where it is desperately relying on powerful Russia, at a time when there are hardly any countries in the world that will work with it.”
Lengthy-running dream
Myanmar’s navy has been working to acquire nuclear weapons for many years.
The nation’s earlier junta below Senior Gen. Than Shwe negotiated with Russia to construct a nuclear reactor in 1999, however the plan was canceled in 2002.
When Myanmar re-established relations with North Korea, attaining nuclear know-how as soon as once more grew to become a aim, and Thura Shwe Mann, a high navy common, visited Pyongyang in 2008 to look at the rogue nation’s navy and missile services.
Maj. Sai Thein Win, a navy officer who defected, leaked details about how the Myanmar navy below Than Shwe was making an attempt to develop nuclear weapons with know-how from Pyongyang.
In 1992, Myanmar signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the target of which is to stop the unfold of nuclear weapons and weapons know-how. The nation additionally signed the Complete Nuclear-Check-Ban Treaty in 2016, which bans nuclear weapons take a look at explosions, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2018, a legally binding worldwide settlement that comprehensively prohibits nuclear weapons with the ultimate aim of whole elimination.
Joint ‘propaganda show’
Analysts agreed that the opening of the nuclear data heart and signing of the intergovernmental cooperation settlement on Monday have been possible a part of a bid by the junta to spotlight its ties with Russia.
“In my opinion, the implementation of this plan, when the country has barely enough electricity, is just a contrived economic move to expand the scope of cooperation between Russia and Myanmar,” stated political analyst Than Soe Naing.
Expensive nuclear initiatives usually are not possible for Myanmar given the state of the nation’s financial system after two years of junta mismanagement, he added.
“This is not the time for Myanmar to [pursue nuclear projects], nor does it have the capacity to do so,” Than Soe Naing stated. “The junta is not in a situation to assume that its adversaries would take it more seriously if it possesses nuclear weapons, like North Korea.”
He dismissed the junta’s newest bulletins as a “ploy to promote cooperation with Russia for its own benefit.”
Hla Kyaw Zaw, a China-based analyst, agreed with the evaluation, calling the most recent bulletins a part of a junta “propaganda show” for home and international audiences. Russia is a world pariah due to its invasion of Ukraine, so it’d take pleasure in being invited to such an occasion by one other nation, he stated.
Myanmar can be remoted, he stated, and so the junta “wants to show that other countries are willing to help it with this kind of technological assistance.”
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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