Regional rivalry for energy resources and China?s growing shadow are driving massive spending on weapons in Southeast Asia...Burma is in dispute with neighboring Bangladesh over maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal, where both countries want to explore for gas. Their small navies have already confronted one another over an exploratory drilling rig authorized by the Burmese junta in waters claimed by the Bangladeshis...The Burmese regime, however, had bought 12 MiGs from Russia in 2001 following a border clash with Thailand, and announced its plan to purcahse a new fleet of MiG-29s only a few weeks after a trip to Burma by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, whose public comments about strengthening economic ties probably masked the real reason for his visit: to persuade the junta to buy Chinese planes instead of the Russian MiGs... Some have seen the move as part of an effort to reduce the regime?s reliance on Chinese support, particularly in the wake of last year?s attack on the Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic minority, which sent some 37,000 refugees into China and earned the Burmese junta a rare rebuke from Beijing..."