Myanmar Junta and Pakistan Boost Military Ties
Senior Pakistan defense official Colonel Imran Khan visited the Myanmar previous week to discuss military cooperation with the junta leader, according to sources familiar with his visit.
Colonel Imran Khan’s two-day visit from November 29 to December 1 is the latest sign of the growing defense relations between Islamabad and Naypyitaw.
A 10-member team from the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) is currently in Pakistan undergoing training for 4 weeks on precision targeting in air operations and on the JF-17 jet fighter, which was jointly developed by China and Pakistan.
The training is believed to be an attempt to fix the problems that have left the Myanmar Air Force's JF-17's grounded due to technical malfunctions.
Myanmar bought 16 JF-17's from China. The first batch of six aircraft was delivered in 2018, but details about the delivery date for the other 10 remain unclear. Myanmar was the first country to buy the JF-17.
The Myanmar Air Force has also procured JF-17 Block-II aircraft from Pakistan to bolster its strength. With the Myanmar military's ground forces under pressure from the resistance, the Myanmar army is increasingly reliant on air strikes to counter People's Defense Forces (PDF) and ethnic armed organizations (EAO).
Pakistan is one of just a handful of countries that maintain military relations with the Myanmar regime.
In September previous year, a high-level delegation from Pakistan's defense ministry visited Myanmar. They are believed to have held talks with Myanmar's military leaders on advanced ordnance technology, aircraft repair and maintenance, and naval munitions. The visit was not publicized by either side.
Relations between Pakistan and Myanmar were strained by the Rohingya crisis of 2017, when more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to neighboring Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched clearance operations in northern Rakhine State in response to attacks by Rohingya guerrillas on police outposts.
Analysts believe that in the light of the changing political landscape in Myanmar, Pakistani officials have decided to reach out to the Myanmar junta to revive relations, as the Myanmar regime is in need of weapons such as air-to-surface missiles to crackdown on People's Defense Forces and ethnic armed organizations.
Normally, the junta buys arms from Russia and China. But with international sanctions imposed on the regime, China can use Pakistan as a proxy to continue its assistance to the Myanmar military.
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