While commenting on the visit, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "President Obama's visit is a matter between the United States and Myanmar. China and Myanmar are friendly neighbours, who, on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, conducted substantial cooperation in the spirit of equality and reciprocity, and they have also promoted their strategic partnership of cooperation. The development of China-Myanmar relations benefits the two peoples, and contributes to regional peace, stability and prosperity. We are confident in the in-depth development of bilateral relations."
The privately-owned Irrawaddy Journal of Myanmar reported that in the week prior to Mr Obama’s visit , two Myanmar delegations travelled to China to strengthen old military and cultural ties.
A Myanmar military delegation headed by Tatmadaw (armed forces) Deputy Commander-in-Chief Gen Soe Win visited China’s largest bi-annual defense exhibition in the southern Chinese coastal city of Zhuhai on November 13, according to photos circulated on Chinese microblogs.
According to the Journal, the images showed a delegation with at least three general-ranked officers touring the Ninth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition. Chinese state media has not identified Soe Win and other members of the delegation as visitors to the armaments trade fair. Similarly, no Myanmar visitors were mentioned in a detailed list of foreign dignitaries released by the organizers at the last Zhuhai Airshow in 2010.
Two reporters for the Global Times reported in a blog post that the Myanmar delegation “paid careful attention to the C802/C705/ FL-3000N defense missile system”. The short-range surface-to-air missile launcher for ships, first revealed at the same airshow in 2008, has since been employed on China’s first aircraft carrier.
On November 14, Soe Win met Gen Ma Xiaotian, Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, at his headquarters in Beijing. Both sides expressed their wish to deepen cooperation in air force technology and training, according to a statement by the Chinese Ministry of Defense.
According to The Irrawaddy Journal, Ma, 63, last visited the Burmese capital Naypyidaw in September, then as a Deputy Chief of Staff, where he held talks with incoming Vice-President Nyan Tun, a former Navy chief, and Commander-in-Chief Vice--Gen Min Aung Hlaing.
Ma, a long-time rising star within the Chinese armed forces, assumed command of the Chinese Air Force in October. The day before meeting Soe Win, Ma was elevated to the Chinese Communist Party’s all-powerful Central Military Commission.
On November 15, the Myanmar delegation met with new Vice-Chief of Staff Lieut-Gen Qi Jiangu, and the outgoing Minister of Defense Gen Liang Guanglie. Thereafter, it travelled to Xi’an, a hub for military aviation, where they were received by Maj-Gen Lin Miaoxin, political commissar of the Shaanxi military district, according to a report in the local Shaanxi Daily newspaper.
The military delegation returned to Naypyidaw on November 19, hours after President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi had met with Mr Obama. On the same day, former Brig-Gen Aye Myint Kyu was in Beijing on his first trip as Minister of Culture.
He discussed arrangements for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games to be hosted by Myanmar in December next year with his Chinese counterpart Cai Wu. In September, both countries had reached an undisclosed framework agreement on “assistance and support” for the opening and closing ceremonies through the China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd., a state-owned organizer of cultural events. Aye Myint Kyu then met Politburo member Liu Yandong at Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, along with Li Peng, the head of China’s General Administration of Sport.
On November 20, the PLA Daily quoted Liang Guanglie as having told Gen.Soe Win as follows: