US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held landmark talks with Myanmar’s rulers yesterday, saying she was “encouraged” by reform moves from the new regime after decades of repression and isolation.
The top diplomat, sent by US President Barack Obama on a delicate mission to encourage change in a nation long distrustful of the West, was also due to meet with famed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Burmese President Thein Sein hailed a “new chapter in relations” with Washington during talks at the imposing presidential palace in the remote capital Naypyidaw, decked out with chandeliers and gold-leaf chairs.
Clinton told the former general, who has overseen a series of reforms, that “President Obama and myself are encouraged by the steps that you and your government have taken to provide for your people.”
Myanmar was ruled by the military for decades until elections last year brought a nominally civilian government to power — albeit one with close links to the army.
Later, Clinton was to head to Yangon, the commercial hub of the country formerly known as Burma, where she will meet Aung San Suu Kyi twice — first for dinner and then for more formal talks this morning.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner holds huge influence in Washington and any easing of US sanctions on Myanmar would almost certainly need her approval.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has held a series of meetings with the regime since her release from house arrest last month, told a conference in Washington via video link on Wednesday that she hoped Clinton’s visit would spur further reform.
“I hope Secretary Clinton’s visit will open the way toward a better relationship,” Aung San Suu Kyi said. “I’ve always been in favor of engagement. I would certainly be very happy to see the United States engaging more with Burma.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition, which boycotted last year’s poll, plans to contest byelections in a major test of how far the government is ready to accept political reforms.
There are 48 seats up for grabs, but no date has been set for a vote yet.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent the best part of two decades in detention at the hands of the generals, confirmed that she personally planned to stand in the polls.
“I will certainly run for elections when they take place,” she said.
The democracy icon has welcomed signs of change under the new government.
Since taking over, Thein Sein has launched dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minorities with which it is fighting some of the world’s longest-running wars.
However, activists say that anywhere between 500 and more than 1,600 political prisoners remain behind bars and the situation in ethnic areas remains dire.
Aides said Clinton wanted to strike a careful balance — to press Myanmar on persistent concerns over human rights without emboldening hardliners who could argue that reforms have only led to a public lashing by a high-profile guest.
According to US officials, the main focus of her talks with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin would be Myanmar’s relationship with North Korea, which is under tight UN and US sanctions for pursuing nuclear weapons.
Her aides have, however, played down defectors’ accounts of nuclear cooperation between the two authoritarian countries, saying the top US concern relates to missile technology.
Clinton has repeatedly said that she does not envision an immediate end to sweeping US sanctions on Myanmar, a step that would require approval from a largely skeptical US Congress.
However, while officials declined to comment on any announcements they may make in Myanmar, the US has a number of other tools at its disposal, such as stepping up development assistance in one of the world’s poorest nations.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the