Norway’s funding body excludes Indian, Chinese companies
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has excluded two companies from China and India for selling light combat aircraft and a weapons system to military-ruled Myanmar.
In a statement from the Ethnic Board, the fund, valued at 13.2 trillion kroner ($1.3 trillion) on Wednesday, owned 0.37 percent of the Chinese group and 0.32 percent of the Indian company at the end of 2021, according to the most recent figures available.
“AviChina delivered light airplanes in December 2021 to Myanmar, and Bharat Electronics delivered a remote-controlled weapons station to Myanmar in July 2021. Both before and after the coup in 2021, the armed forces have perpetrated grave abuses against the civilian population, with combat aircraft, according to several international institutions,” the fund stated.
“The Council has attached importance to the fact that the company delivered aircraft to Myanmar despite the military coup and the information concerning the military’s abuses. The company has not responded to the Council’s queries,” the fund added.
According to the fund, Bharat Electronics’ system was developed to remotely control weapons inside an armoured vehicle.
The fund confirmed that “such vehicles are used in attacks on civilians in Myanmar. The attacks have been numerous and make up serious and systematic violations of international law in the Council’s view.”
The fund, in which the Norwegian state’s oil revenues are placed, is one of the most prominent investors in the world, with stakes in over 9,000 companies. It also has holdings in bonds and real estate. Governed by rules that prohibit it from investing in companies involved in severe human rights violations, the fund has previously divested from several companies, including Airbus, Boeing, Glencore, Lockheed Martin, and the US tobacco giant Philip Morris.
Last week, three former United Nations experts said that companies from 13 countries – including France, Germany, China, India, Russia, Singapore, and the United States – have been providing supplies critical to producing weapons in Myanmar. The Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) said in a report that after seizing power in a coup in February 2021, Myanmar’s military has become self-sufficient in manufacturing a range of weapons.
The Advisory Council called on states to investigate and start administrative or legal proceedings against companies whose products were identified as enabling the regime to produce weapons used to attack civilians.
Al Jazeera/S.O
