US envoy meets Myanmar's Suu Kyi
AFP: YANGON — A senior US diplomat met Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday for talks about the country's new political landscape following the recent dissolution of the junta.
Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, described the meeting as "very good" but did not reveal details of his discussion with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
US President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 launched a drive to engage with Myanmar's junta, which in March this year made way for a nominally civilian but army backed government after the first election in 20 years.
Washington has voiced disappointment with the results of the dialogue and refused to ease sanctions after the November poll, which was marred by complaints of cheating and won by the military's political proxies.
On Wednesday Yun held talks with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in the capital Naypyidaw in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since the handover of power to the new government.
"We have a policy of engagement," Yun told reporters.
"But certainly I will take back what I learned from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as well as Naypyidaw," he added. "Daw" is a term of respect in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
Suu Kyi, 65, was released in November shortly after the poll, having spent most of the past two decades in detention.
Yun's trip comes just days after a senior UN official visited the country and said that recent signals from the new government were "very encouraging", although the words needed to be matched by action.
It also comes after Washington on Monday renewed its economic sanctions against Myanmar and urged the authorities to release the more than 2,000 political prisoners locked up in the country.
Suu Kyi said she believed the United States had prolonged the measures "because they do not think there has been significant change in Burma."
She added: "This is very much in line with US policy all along. The sanctions will be lifted when they think that there has been significant change."
Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, described the meeting as "very good" but did not reveal details of his discussion with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
US President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 launched a drive to engage with Myanmar's junta, which in March this year made way for a nominally civilian but army backed government after the first election in 20 years.
Washington has voiced disappointment with the results of the dialogue and refused to ease sanctions after the November poll, which was marred by complaints of cheating and won by the military's political proxies.
On Wednesday Yun held talks with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in the capital Naypyidaw in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since the handover of power to the new government.
"We have a policy of engagement," Yun told reporters.
"But certainly I will take back what I learned from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as well as Naypyidaw," he added. "Daw" is a term of respect in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
Suu Kyi, 65, was released in November shortly after the poll, having spent most of the past two decades in detention.
Yun's trip comes just days after a senior UN official visited the country and said that recent signals from the new government were "very encouraging", although the words needed to be matched by action.
It also comes after Washington on Monday renewed its economic sanctions against Myanmar and urged the authorities to release the more than 2,000 political prisoners locked up in the country.
Suu Kyi said she believed the United States had prolonged the measures "because they do not think there has been significant change in Burma."
She added: "This is very much in line with US policy all along. The sanctions will be lifted when they think that there has been significant change."
