US President Barack Obama to visit Burma

[fallstuff]

US President Barack Obama to visit Burma

Fresh from his election win, Barack Obama will this month become the first US president to visit Burma, the White House says.



He will meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

It is part of a three-leg tour from 17 to 20 November that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia.

The government of Burma has begun implementing economic, political and other reforms, a process the Obama administration sought to encourage.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was previously the most senior US official to go to Burma when she visited in December 2011.
'Democratic transition'

Mr Obama's Burma stop is part of a trip built around the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.

In a statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr Obama intended to "speak to civil society to encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition".

The BBC's David Bamford in London says the trip - Mr Obama's first foreign initiative since his re-election this week - reflects the importance that the US has placed on normalising relations with Burma.

This process has moved forward relatively swiftly, our correspondent adds, and it represents an opportunity for the US to have a greater stake in the region and so at least partly counter the dominant influence of China.

The US has appointed a full ambassador to Burma and suspended sanctions to reward the country for releasing political prisoners and for the election of Nobel laureate Ms Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.

America is also set to ease its import ban on goods from Burma, a key part of remaining US sanctions.

Human rights groups are likely to criticise Mr Obama's visit as premature, given that the ruling government has failed to prevent outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country.

Reforms have been taking place in Burma since elections in November 2010 saw military rule replaced with a military-backed nominally civilian government.

Since the country began its reforms, the international community has increasingly looked to invest in Burma, which the International Monetary Fund says is one of the poorest countries in Asia.


link:

BBC News - US President Barack Obama to visit Burma

 

[ahfatzia]

Myanmar is the official name of the country and they don't like to be call Burma anymore. Western media should know and respect that.

This is a more proper form of reporting:

Obama to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar president in Yangon

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1236162/1/.html

 

[Oldman1]

Myanmar is the official name of the country and they don't like to be call Burma anymore. Western media should know and respect that.

This is a more proper form of reporting:

Obama to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar president in Yangon

Obama to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar president in Yangon - Channel NewsAsia

Go email them that.

 

[ahfatzia]

Go email them that.

You'll be a senior member in a few more posts, so no more trolling after that.

 

[Safriz]

Burma Kills Rohingya..
where are "Human rights" now?

 

[Oldman1]

You'll be a senior member in a few more posts, so no more trolling after that.

Just giving you sage advice on a simple task to your correction. Nobody will hear your complaint.

 

[ahfatzia]

Burma Kills Rohingya..
where are "Human rights" now?

Right now Obama's still too high from his reelection win and he also wants to wrestle Myanmar away from China. Human right won't be a issue for awhile, perhaps, until Thein Sein shows him to the door.


@ Oldman1

Thank You, Sage

 

[fallstuff]

Right now Obama's still too high from his reelection win and he also wants to wrestle Myanmar away from China. Human right won't be a issue for awhile, perhaps, until Thein Sein shows him to the door.


@ Oldman1

Thank You, Sage

There will be some mention of the Roginga issue, just enough to stave off HR people. Thats all.

 

[anon45]

Myanmar is the official name of the country and they don't like to be call Burma anymore. Western media should know and respect that.

This is a more proper form of reporting:

Obama to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar president in Yangon

Obama to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar president in Yangon - Channel NewsAsia

Its not really 'Western media' as a group, New York Times and LA Times are reporting it as Myanmar, Voice of America reporting as Burma

 

[ahfatzia]

Its not really 'Western media' as a group, New York Times and LA Times are reporting it as Myanmar, Voice of America reporting as Burma

The country changed its name officially in 1989 and the UN accepted the name of Myanmar instead of Burma. According to Wiki a few countries, including the US, Canada and Britain somehow refuse to call it by the new name, or the original name.

One time I witnessed a Myanmar member got real mad in this forum when another member kept calling the country Burma.

 

[TopCat]

Even a stupid country like Myanmar can draw US president!!!!!!!!

 

[hanian]

and the war always follows

 

[ebr77]

we still call it Burma, why did they change their name though?

 

[ahfatzia]

we still call it Burma, why did they change their name though?

Burma was the name the British used during colonial time and they wanted to rid of that image so they changed back to their old name and called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Out of some curious reasons a few major English speaking nations refuse to call it by the new name even though the UN accepted and uses the new name as the official name. However this scenario might change soon because, obviously, Obama wants to get cozy with the country for certain reason. You know how it is, when the US says "go!' all its minions follow.

 

[ahfatzia]

When a leader of the most powerful country in the world visits a small and poor country, a formerly sanctioned one at that, there has to be reasons and some powerful demands.


Obama's Myanmar trip "no threat to Chinese interests"

(Reuters) - A landmark trip by U.S. President Barack Obama to Myanmar this month poses no threat to China's interests in the Southeast Asian country, a senior Chinese official from a key border province said on Friday.

Obama will become the first U.S. leader to visit Myanmar, the strongest international endorsement of a fragile democratic transition that his administration believes could help counter China's influence in a strategically important region.

Chinese media, academics and even a few diplomats have worried that U.S. engagement in rapidly democratizing Myanmar could threaten Beijing's relationship with what had been an important trade partner and de facto ally.

But Qin Guangrong, the Communist Party chief of Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar and has deep business ties with it, said China was fully behind its opening up, especially as peace and stability there would benefit China.

Qin said he was well aware of Obama's pending trip.

"We understand and support the wish of the Myanmar authorities wanting to open up and become part of the world," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Communist Party congress, in rare comments on a sensitive relationship.

"We believe that Myanmar's leaders will exercise their wisdom to lead their country's opening up. They know that the people of China will always be true friends of Myanmar's."

China has long been worried by instability in its much poorer southern neighbor, whether by fighting between Myanmar's government and ethnic rebels spilling over into China or by the flow of drugs in its southwestern provinces.

A stable Myanmar should make it easier for Chinese companies which have poured vast sums into the country in recent years in the absence of Western investment to operate more easily, though inevitably it will also bring competition, now that the United States and European Union have substantially eased sanctions.

Qin pointed out that Yunnan had hosted mediation efforts between Myanmar and ethnic Kachins after fighting flared in 2011 following a 17-year truce, pushing refugees into China.

"Yunnan hopes for peace in Myanmar, ethnic harmony and economic development and peace on the border. We don't want to see Myanmar going back to a state of long-term war and chaos," he said.

Qin said Yunnan had been playing "close attention" to Myanmar's political reforms, which he said had led to "many important changes".

Still, concern persists over some vital Chinese projects in the country, notably a twin oil and gas pipeline being built across Myanmar into Yunnan.

There is a history of resentment of China among the Burmese population and fierce public opposition to a $3.6 billion Chinese-built dam at Myitsone that prompted President Thein Sein to shelve the project last year, a move that stunned Beijing.

"We hope that Myanmar will protect the safety of China's investments and personnel there," Qin said. "Because the cooperation on these projects accord with the interests of both sides, and are mutually beneficially and win-win."

Obama's Myanmar trip no threat to Chinese interests | Reuters


I doubt it. Aung San Suu Kyi is strongly pro west and with Myanmar internal situations are heading toward chaos, perhaps, Obama wants to embolden the people by igniting a 'Burma spring' so that Suu Kyi can takeover.