Arakan News Agency
Beijing believes that Myanmar is now ready to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.
Wang made the remarks after meeting with Bangladesh’s foreign minister.
Since August 2017, some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military campaign in Myanmar with a Buddhist majority, many of whom have spoken of widespread killings, rape and burning of property in the western state of Arakan, the United Nations and aid groups said.
In May, the United Nations said it had reached a framework agreement with the Myanmar government aimed at allowing them to return.
Wang said he met Kyaw Tint Sui, a senior official in the Myanmar government in Beijing, and received a report on Myanmar’s efforts to resolve the resettlement problem.
“I really felt that Myanmar had already prepared to receive those who had taken refuge in Bangladesh,” Wang told reporters, accompanied by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abulhasan Mahmoud Ali.
“We really hope to see the return process, especially for the first batch of returnees, as soon as possible.”
“We would like to see and believe that with the hard work of Bangladesh and Myanmar, the resettlement process can begin as soon as possible,” he said.
China has strong ties with Myanmar and has supported what Myanmar officials called the legitimate process of countering the Arakan insurgency.
