China, India firms dropped by Norway fund over Myanmar weapons

Myanmar soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, in February, 2021 [File: Stringer/Reuters]

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.

Norges Bank Investment Management said it had divested from AviChina Industry & Technology and Bharat Electronics due to the “unacceptable risk” that the companies posed by selling weapons to a state that uses them “in ways that constitute serious and systematic violations of international humanitarian law”.