US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday hailed Myanmar’s transition from army rule to a civilian government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi as a “remarkable statement” of support for global democracy.
In the first high-level meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi and her administration since it took office in March, Kerry told the Nobel laureate her country’s evolution toward democracy after decades under the military served as a beacon of hope.
“Today my message is very, very simple: we strongly support the democratic transition that is taking place here,” he told reporters at a joint news conference with her in the capital, Naypyidaw.
Historic elections in November last year swept Aung San Suu Kyi and her party into office and effectively ended half a century of military rule.
Kerry applauded the process as a “remarkable statement to people all over the world.”
As a reward for holding the peaceful election, Washington last week lifted a host of financial and trade embargoes.
However, it has kept the backbone of its sanctions, as well as a blacklist of cronies and businesses close to the former junta, as leverage.
Aung San Suu Kyi said she welcomed the “scrutiny” inherent in the remaining sanctions.
“If we are going along the right path, all sanctions will be lifted in good time,” she added.
The veteran activist, whose decades-long struggle against the generals won the world’s admiration, draws on much political capital in Washington.
She now serves as Myanmar’s minister of foreign affairs, while also holding the new position of state counsellor that puts her at the helm of government in defiance of an army-drafted constitution barring her from the presidency. That role is now held by her longtime ally, Htin Kyaw.
In addition to November’s election, reforms so far have seen hundreds of political prisoners freed, the press unshackled from censorship and foreign investment flood into a country cut off from the world for so long by paranoid generals.
Before leaving, Kerry also met Myanmar Armed Forces commander Min Aung Hlaing as Washington looks to encourage further democratization.
The pair discussed “implementing multiparty democracy” and easing rebel conflicts, according to a post by the top general on his official Facebook page.
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