A healthy mix of European passion for wealth and Asian comfort in repression have given a new lease of legitimacy and political life to one of South-east Asia's most brutal regimes, the military government in Burma.
Human rights activists and analysts are viewing such gifts during the just-ended fifth Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM) in Hanoi as a harsh blow to the struggle for democracy in Burma led by the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
While the support to Rangoon from governments of South-east Asia was expected, what is troubling the critics of ASEM is the manner in which European governments let Burma's junta walk tall after the two-day summit, which ended on Saturday.
''By refusing to take a firm stand on Burma, the European leaders are helping to prolong the military regime's stay in power,'' said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations) Network on Burma, a regional human rights lobby.
''The junta will be happy with this,'' she added during an interview. ''It will be hoping that Suu Kyi will get the message to give up or give in.''
Kavi Chongkittavorn, an editor and columnist on regional affairs at 'The Nation,' a Thai daily newspaper, was more blunt. ''This is how western countries punish democratic leaders,'' he told IPS.
By caving into the pressure asserted by host country Vietnam and other Asian leaders, the European members of ASEM have ''undermined Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts to restore democracy in Burma,'' he added.
A commentary in Tuesday's 'Bangkok Post' newspaper ridiculed the political mileage secured by Rangoon after the loud threats made by European governments in the run-up to the ASEM meeting that it would come down hard on the junta.
''Burma is probably the biggest winner,'' wrote Anuraj Manibhandu, the paper's features editor. ''Without even lifting a finger - while other Asians and Europeans fretted over its record and eligibility - it has been inducted into another respectable club.''
Burma, Cambodia and Laos became the newest Asian members of ASEM, which was created in 1996 to strengthen economic and trade ties between the two regions. The European numbers in ASEM were strengthened by the addition of the10 new states of the European Union (EU).
Burma's latest feat on the international stage comes seven years after it was admitted as a member of ASEAN, a 10-member grouping of South-east Asian nations. This regional body threw a protective wall around Burma to shield it from outside criticism and also refused to influence political change due to the policy of non-interference it upholds.
That European leaders present at the summit, like French President Jacques Chirac, were unable to live up to their claims as promoters of democracy was reflected in the absence of Suu Kyi's name in the final statement to come out of the fifth ASEM.
This document only said that the ASEM leaders looked forward to ''the early lifting of restrictions placed on political parties in accordance with the assurances given by Myanmar (the name the ruling generals have given for Burma).''
Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest following an attack last May on herself and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) by thugs linked to the junta.
This is the latest in a long list of abuse members of the NLD have been subject to for the past decade-and-a-half by the military, which has ruled the country with an iron grip since it came into power following a coup in 1962.
On the eve of the summit, the EU threatened to impose new sanctions on Burma if Rangoon did not release pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, halt the intimidation of NLD members and did not resume with full political and civil liberties the stalled national convention to draft a new constitution.
But the nature of the sanctions, which were imposed Monday due to Rangoon's reluctance to cave in, has been dismissed by critics as being more symbolic than strong on substance.
The EU's sanctions include: a denial of visas to Europe for a larger number of Burmese with links to the junta and a clamping down on European investments to state-owned companies in Burma.
''The visa blacklist will be hard to implement,'' says Stothard, the rights activist. ''This shows once again how reluctant the EU is to impose economic sanctions on the regime.''
What has given the EU's sanctions the quality of a farce is the lengths to which France went to protect its economic interests in Burma from tougher punitive measures. And standing to gain from that is French oil giant Total, which has investments in Burma.
According to reports France has investments up to the tune of 470 million U.S. dollars in Burma.
The British government was not far behind, despite being a leading opponent of the junta. British investments in Burma are the highest among EU countries and according to available reports it is valued at 1.43 billion U.S. dollars.
''The message is clear for the Burmese regime from this (the ASEM summit). The international community is inconsistent and they can move forward being a rouge state,'' said 'The Nation's' Kavi.
Critics are more supportive of the punitive measures imposed by the U.S. government last year, since they have teeth. They include a ban on new U.S. investments to the South-east Asian country, a ban on all financial services and a prohibition of imports from Burma.
''The NLD is frustrated that the EU and the rest of the international community did not follow the sanctions policy imposed by the U.S.,'' a Burma watcher said.