US President Barack Obama used a landmark encounter with the prime minister of military-run Myanmar yesterday to demand freedom for detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I reaffirmed the policy that I put forward yesterday in Tokyo with regard to Burma,” Obama told reporters, using the former name of the country that has kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the past two decades.
White House spokesman Ben Rhodes said the president reiterated a speech he made in Japan on Saturday when he urged Myanmar’s ruling generals to release the opposition leader and all other political prisoners.
PHOTO: EPA
“So privately he said the exact same thing that he said publicly in enumerating the steps that the government of Burma must take — freeing all political prisoners, freeing Aung San Suu Kyi, ending the violence against minority groups and moving into a dialogue with democratic movements there,” Rhodes said.
Obama made the call to Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein as he sat down with friends and foes alike at the first summit between a US president and ASEAN.
Officials at the meeting said Thein Sein did not react to the unprecedented face-to-face demand over Myanmar’s most famous citizen, but thanked Washington for its new policy of engagement with the military regime.
Before opening the talks in a hotel ballroom, Obama and all 10 ASEAN leaders stood in a line on a stage, crossing their arms to shake hands with the leader on either side.
Thein Sein sat nearly opposite the US president as the leaders assembled at a round table, reporters noted before they were ushered out.
The meeting on the sidelines of an APEC forum was aimed at injecting some much-needed warmth into US relations with a region that has felt neglected, with Washington consumed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) applauded the US for moving past the Myanmar issue, which has hamstrung relations between Washington and the Southeast Asian region for many years.
“That ... the US president considers it worthwhile to have a summit meeting with all 10 ASEAN members, notwithstanding difficulties which they have, particularly with Myanmar, I think that’s very significant,” he said.
For Obama, it was an opportunity to enlist the support of Myanmar’s neighbors in his new strategy of engagement to push for democracy and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
In his speech in Tokyo, the US leader offered Myanmar’s generals the prospect of a better relationship if they agreed to reform, but said sanctions would remain until they took concrete steps.
“That is how a government in Burma will be able to respond to the needs of its people,” he said on the first leg of his debut tour of Asia. “That is the path that will bring Burma true security and prosperity.”
In a joint statement released after the talks, the US and ASEAN leaders did not mention Aung San Suu Kyi, but warned the junta that elections planned for next year must be “free, fair, inclusive and transparent” to be credible.
Myanmar’s critics have demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, be allowed to participate in the elections. It won 1990 elections in a landslide, but was never allowed to rule.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
RSS