Junta Seeks SCO Lifeline in Moscow After Crashing Economy; and More

Myanmar’s generals have renewed their efforts to cozy up to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—the China and Russia-led bloc they hope will provide diplomatic shade from the scorching heat of Western sanctions.

At the SCO Forum on Sustainable Development in Moscow on Monday, Deputy Planning Minister Kyaw Htin solemnly declared that “no country can achieve sustainable development alone.” The irony was hard to miss: a regime that has spent nearly five years dismantling its own economy now insists that collective progress is the answer.