YANGON: Myanmar’s President Thein Sein headed to the United States yesterday for a landmark visit that coincides with a triumphal American tour by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Thein Sein will attend the United Nations General Assembly and is expected to outline plans for the future of his fast-changing nation during his first trip to the US since taking power last year and ushering in a period of rapid reform.
“The trip will open a new chapter with the international community,” Zaw Htay, an official in the Presidential Office said of a visit that marks the latest step in dramatically thawing relations with the US, which has started rolling back sanctions against the former pariah.
“He is expected to explain the reform process of the country including what the government has done and what it is going to do,” said Zaw Htay, adding that the president was set to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as other senior US, European and UN officials.
Thein Sein set off from Yangon yesterday evening, according to a government official.
He was accompanied by immigration minister Khin Yi and border affairs minister Thein Htay, both prominent figures in the regime’s efforts to tackle deadly unrest in the west of the country between Buddhists and Muslims.
Thein Sein, a former junta general who last week freed dozens of political prisoners, will have to share the limelight with Suu Kyi, received with acclaim during her first trip to the US since she began her struggle for democracy more than two decades ago.
The Nobel laureate has already been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the top honour bestowed by the legislature, and has met President Barack Obama at the White House since arriving in the country last week.
But while US officials have taken pains to stress that Thein Sein deserves credit for Myanmar’s breathless pace of change after nearly half a century of junta rule, there are no official plans for him to meet Obama.
US last week lifted sanctions on the Myanmar president and lower house parliament speaker Shwe Mann, removing them from the US Treasury’s list of “Specially Designated Nationals”.
The pair were put on the list in 2007 as US raised pressure on the ruling junta.
AFP
