Senior General Than Shwe, head of the armed forces and junta chief, was the only speaker at a ceremony marking Armed Forces Day. The 74-year-old junta chief spoke for an hour to 500 invited dignitaries, diplomats and foreign journalists at a parade ground overlooked by statues of Burmese kings.
He warned that the nation faces danger from "powerful countries" that are attempting to undermine its unity and weaken the military.
The ruling junta claims that the pro-democracy movement of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is seeking to destabilise the country with the backing of western nations.
The US and Britain have denounced the junta for its poor human rights record and for refusing to hand over power to Suu Kyi's party after it won a landslide election victory in 1990.
