Japan has affirmed its defence cooperation with Myanmar despite international criticism of the country’s government and military over the handling of the northern Rakhine crisis.
Kentaro Sonoura, special adviser to the Japanese prime minister on national security, said Japan believes the Tatmadaw “has an important role in consolidating democracy in Myanmar.”
“Japan is conducting defence cooperation and exchange by accepting cadets from the Tatmadaw for the National Defence Academy of Japan.
“(It is) exchanging officers and supporting capacity-building in various areas, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” he said in an interview published Thursday in the government newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.