Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, divested from the two corporations over Myanmar military sales.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has excluded two Chinese and Indian businesses for providing light combat aircraft and a weapons system to military-ruled Myanmar.
Norges Bank Investment Management sold from AviChina Industry & Technology and Bharat Electronics owing to the “intolerable danger” of providing weapons to a state that uses them “in ways that constitute significant and systematic violations of international humanitarian law”.
The fund, valued at 13.2 trillion kroner ($1.3 trillion) on Wednesday, owned 0.37 percent of the Chinese corporation and 0.32 percent of the Indian company in 2021, according to the latest numbers. On Tuesday, the fund said an ethics board excluded the two companies.
The fund stated AviChina delivered small airplanes to Myanmar in December 2021 and Bharat Electronics delivered a remote-controlled weapons station in July 2021.
The fund divested from AviChina because “both before and after the coup in 2021, the armed forces have perpetrated exceptionally egregious crimes against the civilian population, with, among other things, combat aircrafts,” according to many international agencies.
The Council valued the company’s delivery of aircraft to Myanmar despite the military coup and military abuses. The fund said the corporation hasn’t answered the Council’s questions.
The Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) said that Myanmar’s military had become self-sufficient in weapon manufacture after seizing power in a coup in February 2021.
The advisory council urged states to investigate and prosecute corporations whose products helped the regime make weapons used to kill civilians.
