April 25, 2020

Director-General U Zaw Htay of the Ministry of Office of State Counsellor responded to questions from journalists related to the peace process through a Facebook post yesterday.

He said there are continuous negotiations between the government and ethnic armed organizations that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA-S EAO). He said the informal meetings held from 4 to 6 April had a face-to-face meeting on the 4th, video conferencing between NCA-S EAO on the 5th, and the informal meeting on the 6th.

U Zaw Htay said there will be additional meetings in early May. He said there are 2 proposals for going forward. One is to hold informal meetings between NCA-S EAO representatives within the nation and the government while implementing physical distancing. This involves the EAOs discussing among themselves online and then coming to discuss with the government while the second option is to hold a video conference with all stakeholders instead.

U Zaw Htay said the NCA-S EAO are currently reviewing discussions with the government among themselves and will return for more meetings after they have reached common agreements. He said both sides are working hard so that COVID-19 does not slow down the peace process.—MNA (Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)