Myanmar’s deputy foreign minister yesterday rejected Asian and European “pressure and interference” over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it was neither a political nor a human rights issue.
Speaking at a meeting of ASEAN and EU ministers in the Cambodian capital, Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint said the charges against the pro-democracy icon were an “internal legal issue.”
“It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don’t accept pressure and interference from abroad,” the official told his counterparts.
“I expect that the excellencies from abroad, especially the EU, can understand more about Myanmar,” he said.
The minister’s remarks on live video appeared to have been accidentally broadcast to reporters at the press center outside the closed-door meetings.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching her house arrest after an eccentric US man swam to her lakeside house in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.
The statement, one of the strongest yet from the military regime, came as ASEAN and European ministers opened talks in Phnom Penh with pledges to boost ties with the Myanmar issue looming in the background.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had said in a speech that the meetings would “mark another milestone for expanding and deepening” relations between ASEAN and the EU.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen echoed his sentiments during the opening ceremony, but officials indicated Myanmar would likely take up much of the agenda.
The meetings in Phnom Penh were also set to cover issues ranging from the global financial crisis to energy and food security.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS