Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021 overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war.
In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias opposed to its rule.
He met Xi in Moscow on the sidelines of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Friday and thanked China for its humanitarian assistance following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in March, reported junta media The Global New Light of Myanmar
He also thanked China “for its support of Myanmar’s stance on regional and international fronts”, it said.
Xinhua news agency reported that Xi expressed his country’s support for Myanmar pursuing development “suited to its national conditions, safeguarding its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national stability, and steadily advancing its domestic political agenda”.
Xi said he hoped Myanmar would take “concrete measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Myanmar, and intensify efforts to combat cross-border crimes”.
More than 6,600 people have been killed since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and millions displaced.
Concerned about the violence on its doorstep destabilising regional peace and its economic ambitions, China has reportedly mediated talks between Myanmar’s junta and key rebel groups.
While Min Aung Hlaing’s Friday meeting with Xi was his first time in his role as junta chief, the general had previously met the Chinese leader in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw in January 2020, a year before seizing power. (AFP)
