Burma has given China political assurance over an important crude oil pipeline and promised to maintain stability along the border after unrest in August pushed thousands of refugees into the Chinese side.
The pledges were made during a weekend visit by Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping to the military-run former Burma, treated as a pariah by the West for alleged human rights abuses and the detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
China is junta's's main foreign backer and an important military supplier. China's overriding concern is a stable Burma to give its landlocked southwest access to the Indian Ocean, as well as oil, gas and timber to feed its booming economy.
A crucial part of that relationship has been the long-mooted construction of oil and gas pipelines to China, a project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait.
China's top oil and gas firm CNPC has now received exclusive rights to build and operate the China-Burma crude oil pipeline, CNPC said in a report on its website (www.cnpc.comc.cn), in a deal signing witnessed by Xi.
The Burmese government will guarantee pipeline safety and the ownership and franchise right of the pipeline, the report said.
CNPC, parent of PetroChina, started building a crude oil port in Burma on October 31, part of the 771-kilometre pipeline scheme.
Xi, seen as frontrunner to succeed President Hu Jintao, assured Burma of China's continuing support.
"Developing friendly and cooperative relations between China and Myanmar is an important part of Chinese foreign policy, and this will not change," China's Foreign Ministry paraphrased Xi as telling Burma's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe.
STRAINED TIES
But the relationship has not been as smooth of late.
In August, Burma's military overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang group, the weakest of many ethnic armies which, in some cases, have based themselves for decades along the Chinese border.
That triggered an exodus of more than 37,000 refugees across the border and strained ties with China, Burma's only real diplomatic ally.
Than Shwe, meeting with Xi in the country's new jungle capital of Naypyidaw, said they would ensure border stability.
"Myanmar will, as always, and working hard with the Chinese, preserve the peace and stability of the border areas," China's Foreign Ministry paraphrased Than Shwe as telling Xi, in a statement carried on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
"China and Myanmar share a long joint border, and Myanmar deeply understands and knows that maintaining peace and stability on the border is extremely important to both countries," added the general, who rarely meets foreign leaders.
Burma's army has maintained a sizable presence over the past few months in Shan State, where rebel militias are braced for an offensive that could turn into a protracted conflict, creating another refugee crisis for China.
The junta wants ethnic groups to take part in a general election next year and has told local militias to disarm and join a government-run border patrol force or be wiped out, according to activists in Shan State.
Xi added that China felt "happy" at Burma's "road map" to democracy, roundly dismissed by rights activists as a sham.
"China hopes and believes that Myanmar will peacefully resolve these problems through dialogue and consultations," Xi said.
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