Israel–Myanmar relations

Israel–Myanmar relations

Israel

Myanmar

Israel–Myanmar relations refer to the bilateral relations between Israel and Myanmar. The two nations established diplomatic ties in 1953.[1] Israel has an embassy in Yangon, and Myanmar has an embassy in Tel Aviv. The Jewish state has a longtime friendship with Myanmar, which was among the first countries in Asia to recognize Israel's independence and establish diplomatic ties with the young state. There is a lot of cooperation between the two countries especially in the fields of agriculture and education.[2]

State visits

U Nu and Moshe Dayan in 1955.

Burmese prime minister U Nu was the first foreign leader to visit Israel in 1955. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion visited Yangon in 1961.[3]

General Min Aung Hlaing visited Israel in 2015 to strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations.[4]

History

Israel has maintained friendly relations with Myanmar even under the previous military junta regime. However, despite Israel's close ties with the Burmese military junta, Israel has expressed support for pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in several occasions.[5][6]

The new ambassador of Myanmar gave his credentials to president Reuven Rivlin on August 2016. The ambassador's daughter is attending Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and is the first Burmese student at that campus.[7]

Current Israeli ambassador to Myanmar is Daniel Zonshine.[8] He was interviewed by a local news website in Myanmar in 2016, and described the ties between the state of Israel and Myanmar as "good and friendly, with the potential to be even better and friendlier".[9]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.