India and Myanmar have made a decision to step up the security ties and firm up their connectivity plans after Modi held extensive talks with President U Htin Kyaw – the first top-level engagement with the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). “Hopefully, Asian countries can stop being suspicious of each other and seize the opportunity to promote regional peace, stability and development”, the article advocated.
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It is his first state visit after the assumption of office in March by the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, bringing down curtains on five decades of military rule in Myanmar.
The world body said it had found “a pattern of gross human rights violations against the Rohingya”.
Because the groups have refused to issue a statement saying they will lay down their arms during talks with the military in the run-up to the conference, the government decided not to invite them, the report said.
He acknowledged how the military and the ethnic armed groups have their differences, but he hopes they can put those aside to work towards a common goal of achieving national peace.
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon (R) greets the audience upon arrival with his wife Ban Soon-taek (2nd R) and Ho Kwon Ping (2nd L) Chairman of Singapore Management University at the Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia Public Lecture Series in Singapore on August 29, 2016.
Representatives from 17 of the country’s 20 major ethnic groups are attending, including the Karen, Kachin, Shan and Wa.
On June 20, the United Nations human rights office said the Rohingya Muslims had been subject to multiple and aggravated forms of human rights violations, including citizenship denial, forced labor and sexual violence.
Few concrete proposals are to emerge from this week’s talks, with delegates expecting to meet every six months to discuss issues ranging from security, political representation and culture to sharing the fruits of Myanmar’s mineral riches.
The gathering has also been billed as the 21st Century Panglong Conference, after a historic 1947 meeting convened in the town of that name by independence hero General Aung San, who was Suu Kyi’s father.
Myanmar military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivers his address during the opening of an ethnic peace conference in Naypyidaw on August 31, 2016.
I congratulate all sides for the patience, endurance, determination and spirit of compromise you have demonstrated in support of national reconciliation. “It is understandable to evaluate bilateral ties from a geopolitical perspective, but China is unlikely to be interested in begrudging any increased interaction between India and Myanmar”, the article also said. The 21st Century Panglong Conference represents the result of those efforts.
Casting a shadow over the summit is a recent flare up in fighting in the country’s north and ongoing clashes in the north east. Key parties will need time to hammer out a framework agreeable to a complex mix of stakeholders that include foreign governments including China, which maintains ties with ethnic armed groups on its border.
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It’s also not clear whether the handful of rebel groups not attending will join later; the ethnic minorities believe that only a comprehensive agreement including all can succeed.
