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SLORC signs economic pact with ally



Subject: SLORC signs economic pact with ally China 

 Burma signs economic pact with ally China 
 06:33 a.m. May 30, 1997 Eastern 

 RANGOON, May 30 (Reuter) - Burma has signed a broad
 economic and trade cooperation agreement with its major ally China,
 official media reports said on Friday, a move that comes soon after
 U.S. sanctions on Rangoon. 

 The reports said China's visiting vice minister for foreign trade and
 economic cooperation, Li Guo Hua, and Burma's national planning
 and economic development minister, David Abel, also agreed on
 Thursday to form a joint works committee for cooperation. 

 No further details were provided. 

 ``The significance of this agreement is it was signed soon after the
 U.S. decided to impose economic sanctions on Burma,'' an analyst
 said. 

 ``It can mean that the Chinese want to show the ruling State Law and
 Order Restoration Council (SLORC) that they are dependable in
 times of isolation,'' he said. 

 The United States in April announced a ban on all new U.S.
 investments in Burma because of alleged human rights abuses by the
 country's military rulers and repression of the democracy movement
 led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. 

 China is one of Burma's closest allies and is said to be its biggest
 supplier of weapons. 

 Bilateral trade between the two countries totalled $500 million in
 1995, Chinese embassy sources said. 

 The Burma-China pact also comes ahead of a widely watched
 meeting of Asssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
 foreign ministers in Malaysia on Saturday to decide when Burma will
 be permitted to join the regional grouping. 

 ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
 Thailand and Vietnam -- has already decided to admit Burma,
 Cambodia and Laos as a group this year. 

 Malaysia, this year's ASEAN chairman, has pressed for the three to
 be inducted at the group's annual ministerial meeting scheduled for
 July 24-25. Another proposal would admit them at an informal
 ASEAN summit in December. 

 The United States has asked ASEAN to delay Burma's entry
 because of human rights concerns. ^REUTER@