Russia and Myanmar have agreed to continue their nuclear cooperation recently. Myanmar’s cherished nuclear ambitions are backed by Russia, which wants to create as many problems as it can for the western world. If Russia continues to help Myanmar to go nuclear, its implications in South and Southeast Asia would be dangerous. The nuclear-free zone of Southeast Asia would become nuclear. The arms race would be mandatory for Southeast Asia. Although this would be a strategic gain for some powers, ultimately nuclear tension would be confirmed in the ASEAN region.
If Myanmar acquires nuclear capability, it would be a disaster for South and Southeast Asia. All regional countries would be facing security threats from Myanmar directly. South and Southeast Asia is going to be vulnerable permanently. The military junta could use the weapons against various ethnic rivals, and insurgents. Not only that, but the whole Southeast Asian region would also be volatile, and unstable. Myanmar’s aggressive behaviour would grow. Recent border tensions between Myanmar-Bangladesh are the best example to realize. Myanmar’s military is so brutal, it has been carrying out airstrikes on its people.
he Bangladesh Foreign Ministry summoned Myanmar’s ambassador on September 18, for the fourth time in protest at the troubled neighbour’s recent violations of Bangladesh’s air and land space. Myanmar has been embroiled in a civil conflict since mid-August, and throughout this time, shells have crossed the Bangladesh border. On September 16, a mortar bomb launched from Myanmar exploded in a Rohingya camp, killing one 18-year-old and injuring five others. Additionally, on September 3, coordinated shooting attacks from Myanmarese fighter jets and helicopters occurred in Bangladeshi airspace.
In a raid on the Rakhine state on 25 August 2017, the Myanmar army massacred the Rohingya community and burnt their homes. More than 700,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. Thousands of Rohingya have previously gone there.1.25 million Rohingya are currently listed as living in Bangladesh’s numerous refugee camps. Repatriating them has been difficult.
Myanmar has consistently infringed on Bangladesh’s sovereignty.. This is obviously against international law, standards, and traditions. Myanmar must must keep in mind that Bangladesh is a sovereign nation and that its firing shells into the border, whether on purpose or accidentally, is unacceptable.
An agreement signed by Myanmar’s military regime and Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation to jointly assess building a small reactor in the Southeast Asian country underscores the junta’s long-term pursuit of nuclear weapons, analysts said.
Myanmar’s, ministers of science and technology; and of electric power; and the CEO of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, signed the “roadmap for cooperation upon its own citizens” at the Eastern Economic Forum on September 5-8 in Vladivostok. The deal would further Russian-Myanmar cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, and assess the feasibility of a small-scale nuclear reactor project in Myanmar. The junta announced that it would use nuclear energy for electricity generation, scientific research, medicine production, and industry. Myanmar has sent scientists, technicians, and army officers to Russia for training in recent years. Moscow has agreed to supply Myanmar with a small nuclear react for civilian use. why is the world silent?
Myanmar has been carrying out rudimentary steps toward developing nuclear weapons, a documentary released in June by an opposition group, the Democratic Voice of Burma, alleges. The opposition group also issued a corresponding report on June 3 featuring an analysis by former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspector Robert Kelley. Kelley claimed in the report that, taken collectively, the technology featured “is only for nuclear weapons and not civilian use.”
Burma’s nuclear ambitions, spotlighted by last month’s announcement that Russia has agreed to help the regime build a nuclear research facility, date back at least seven years. In December 1995, the junta signed the Bangkok Treaty, banning the development, manufacture, possession, control, stationing, transport, testing, or use of nuclear weapons under the terms of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The West should join wth all regional countries and ASEAN to pressure Myanmar to give up its nuclear (weapons) ambitions. They must take action like in the Iran case, Otherwise, the world is going to see another nuclear threat in the Southeast region. Instead of developing nuclear weapons, the world must compel Myanmar to focus on bringing back democracy and resolving problems like HIV AIDS, human trafficking, rape, drug abuse, child soldiers, forced labour, ethnic crisis, refugee issues, and corruption. All bordering and neighbouring countries of Myanmar must be cautious in this regard.
Five years later, after a visit to Moscow by Burma’s minister for science and technology, U Thaung, the junta’s nuclear plans became clearer” The junta’s recent confirmation that it will build a small-scale nuclear power plant in the next few years caps Myanmar’s long pursuit of nuclear technology dating back to early 2000.In 2009, it was reported that Myanmar was suspected of having initiated a nuclear weapons programme. If such a programme does exist, Burma’s technical and financial limitations may make it difficult for it to succeed. The USA expressed concern in 2011 about potential violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), though by 2012 these concerns had been “partially allayed.” Burma has faced persistent accusations of using chemical weapons.
In 2007, Russia and Burma made a controversial nuclear research centre deal. According to them, “The centre will comprise a 10MW light-water reactor working on 20%-enriched uranium-235, an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production laboratory, silicon doping system, nuclear waste treatment, and burial facilities”.
According to an August 2009 report published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Burma had been working to develop a nuclear weapon by 2014. The reported effort, purportedly being undertaken with assistance from North Korea, involves the construction of a nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facilities in caves tunnelled into a mountain in the Mandalay division.
On June 3, 2010, a five-year investigation by an anti-government Myanmar broadcaster, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), found evidence that allegedly shows the country’s military regime began a programme to develop nuclear weapons. The DVB said evidence of Myanmar’s nuclear programme came from top-secret documents smuggled out of the country over several years, including hundreds of files and other evidence provided by Sai Thein Win, a former major in the military of Myanmar. A UN report said there was evidence that North Korea had been exporting nuclear technology to Burma, Iran, and Syria. Now, Russia supports Myanmar’s nuclear programme openly.
Based on Win’s evidence, Robert Kelley, a former weapons inspector, said he believed Burma “has the intent to go nuclear and it is… expending huge resources along the way.” But as of 2010, experts said that Burma was a long way from succeeding, given the poor quality of its current materials. Despite Kelley’s analysis, some experts are uncertain that a nuclear weapons programme exists; for example, the Institute for Science and International Security notes ambiguity as to whether certain equipment is used for uranium production, or for innocently producing “rare earth metals or metals such as titanium or vanadium.” The U.S. expressed concern in 2011 about possible NPT violations, but by 2012 stated that its concerns had been “partially allayed.”
Myanmar signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, 2018, but has not ratified it.
On 15 December 1995, ASEAN Member States signed the Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ Treaty) as a commitment to preserve the Southeast Asian region as a region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. The Treaty is also known as the Bangkok Treaty. Through this treaty, ASEAN reaffirms the importance of the NPT in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and in contributing towards international peace and security. It also marks the establishment of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) in Southeast Asia – one among five NWFZs in the world.
The Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty welcomes the signing and early ratification of the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS), which will contribute to the promotion of the realisation of a Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. Efforts are underway toward the accession of the NWS to the Protocol.
Myanmar’s attitude is contradictory to the Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty. Whatever may be the truth, the fact remains that nuclear Myanmar is not in the interest of India, China, or all neighbouring countries. The direct nuclear threat from Myanmar would destabilize the whole region in the long run. If nuclear deterrence works, then the arms race is a must in the region.
The West should join with all regional countries and ASEAN to pressure Myanmar to give up its nuclear (weapons) ambitions. They must take action like in the Iran case, Otherwise, the world is going to see another nuclear threat in the Southeast region. Instead of developing nuclear weapons, the world must compel Myanmar to focus on bringing back democracy and resolving problems like aAIDS, human trafficking, rape, drug abuse, child soldiers, forced labour, ethnic crisis, refugee issues, and corruption. All bordering and neighbouring countries of Myanmar must be cautious in this regard.
Myanmar must promptly implement appropriate measures to cease all forms of unwelcome behaviour in the border area in order to preserve ties between the two nations. All regional countries must raise the issue in the international community to stop Myanmar from committing such heinous activities. Russia must stop its heinous secret mission in Myanmar to keep the ASEAN region stable in its nuclear-free status.
