Russia To Build Nuclear Centre In Sanctions-Hit Myanmar

The nuclear centre in the current deal with Myanmar (Burma) will be under the control of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. It will be operated by Atomstroiexport, a Rosatom subsidiary, without giving a date for when the project would be built. The centre is to include a laboratory for the production of medical isotopes and a complex of buildings and equipment for the reprocessing and burial of nuclear waste, Rosatom said.

by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) May 15, 2007
Russia said Tuesday it had agreed to help build a nuclear research centre in Myanmar, the Asian state run by a military junta that is under European and US economic sanctions. "The agreement foresees cooperation in the design and equipping of a centre for nuclear research in Myanmar," including a small light-water nuclear reactor, Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom said in a statement.

Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko and Myanmar's Science and Technology Minister U Thaung signed the deal for construction of the centre on Tuesday in Moscow, the statement said.

The deal is the latest example of Russia doing business with a country shunned by the West as authoritarian and is likely to further dent rapidly deteriorating relations with Washington and the European Union.

Myanmar is under US and European economic sanctions imposed in response to rights abuses by the country's military dictatorship and the house arrest of 61-year-old democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Washington has accused the Myanmar regime of torturing, raping and executing its own people as well as waging war on minorities and looking the other way while drug and human trafficking grows.

The impact of the sanctions has been weakened by countries such as China, India, Russia and Thailand, which are spending billions of dollars to gain a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources.

Russian companies recently signed oil and gas contracts with Myanmar. In one deal, Russia offered arms to the regime in exchange for access to energy reserves, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported last year.

Russia has also supported Myanmar diplomatically. It joined China in January in vetoing a draft UN Security Council resolution urging Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.

In recent years, Russia has consistently dealt with regimes considered unfriendly by the United States, such as Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, raising the ire of Washington.

Russia has also angered Washington by providing Iran with civilian nuclear technology amid international fears that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons.

The nuclear centre in the current deal with Myanmar will be under the control of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Tuesday's statement said.

It will be operated by Atomstroiexport, a Rosatom subsidiary, the statement said, without giving a date for when the project would be built.

The centre is to include a laboratory for the production of medical isotopes and a complex of buildings and equipment for the reprocessing and burial of nuclear waste, Rosatom said.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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