While the military continues its attacks on ethnic rebels in Burma’s north, the country’s Commander-in-Chief, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, has been out of the country in recent days. After meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in Islamabad, he toured the offices of Heavy Industries Taxila, a major regional defense contractor. In Serbia, he sat down for discussions with Yugoimport SDPR, a state-owned weapons exporter. Both businesses specialize in the sale of tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery.
When Burma’s generals consider strategy, they always have one eye on internal opponents and another on their regional neighbors. While the size of Burma’s standing army dwarfs those of both Bangladesh and Thailand, a ban on arms sales from the European Union and United States has severely impeded the combat capabilities of the country’s armed forces. Indeed, Min Aung Hlaing has been outspoken about the need to modernize, to the point of deflecting questions about his political ambitions by insisting he was fully devoted to bringing the military into the 21st century.
This modernization is always foremost in the minds Burma’s military leaders when they take their shopping lists abroad, and the top brass has shown a particular interest in improving the country’s moribund naval fleet.
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