MOSCOW (Reuters) - Supplies of Russian military equipment to Myanmar are only intended to improve the Southeast Asian country’s defense capability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The United States called on Russia and Myanmar on Thursday to reconsider a reported agreement for the supply of six Russian fighter planes and potential further purchases of military hardware.

“To see a connection between this aim and the threat of ‘even greater suffering’ of the civilian population can only be the very ‘rich’ imagination of our colleagues from the State Department,” the ministry said in a statement.