Clinton said she had “candid, productive” conversations with President Thein Sein and other Myanmar ministers, and told them Washington stood ready to support further reforms as the country seeks to emerge from decades of authoritarian military rule.
But she also urged Myanmar to take further steps to release political prisoners and end ethnic conflicts, and said better US ties would be impossible unless Myanmar halts its illicit dealings with North Korea, which has repeatedly set alarm bells ringing across Asia with its renegade nuclear program.
“The president told me he hopes to build on these steps, and I assured him that these reforms have our support,” Clinton said in prepared remarks to a news conference after her talks in Myanmar’s remote capital, Naypyitaw.
“I also made clear that, while the measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just the beginning.”
Clinton’s landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement from the West. She will travel on Thursday to the commercial capital of Yangon, where she will hold the first of two meetings with veteran pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following meetings with Thein Sein and other officials in Naypyitaw, Clinton unveiled several incremental steps to improve ties and said the United States would consider returning an ambassador to the country.
The United States downgraded its representation in Myanmar to a charge d’affaires in response to the military’s brutal 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests and voiding of 1990 elections widely judged to have been won by Suu Kyi’s party.
“This could become an important channel to air concerns, monitor and support progress, and build trust,” Clinton said. “These are incremental steps, and we are prepared to go further if reforms maintain momentum.”
Clinton said the United States would support new World Bank and International Monetary Fund assessment missions to help Myanmar jumpstart its feeble economy and new UN counter-narcotics and health cooperation programs.
Seeking to pull Myanmar more closely into a region increasingly united by its wariness over regional heavyweight China, Clinton invited Myanmar to become an observer to the Lower Mekong Initiative, a US-backed regional grouping aimed at discussing the future of Southeast Asia’s major waterway.
Clinton also said the two countries would discuss a joint effort to recover the remains of Americans killed during the building of the “Burma Road” during World War Two — echoing steps taken successfully with Vietnam as Washington and Hanoi sought to put their differences behind them.
Rights groups and some lawmakers in the US Congress have been concerned that Washington may be moving too swiftly to endorse the new leadership, and Clinton made clear that the United States needed to see more progress before it could consider major steps such as ending economic sanctions which have squeezed Myanmar’s economy and pushed it closer to China.
“It is encouraging that political prisoners have been released, but over 1,000 are still not free,” Clinton said.
“Let me say publicly what I said privately earlier today: no person in any country should be detained for exercising universal freedoms of expression, assembly and conscience.”
A US official who sat in on the talks said Thein Sein had said that the government considered the release of such prisoners “part of the effort of having an inclusive political process” and it was looking at the possibility of more releases.
Clinton also said it would “be difficult to begin a new chapter” until Myanmar begins forging peace with ethnic minority rebels and starts allowing humanitarian groups, human rights monitors and journalists into conflict areas.
Underscoring a key US diplomatic objective, Clinton pressed Myanmar to halt what US officials say are illicit contacts with North Korea, including trade in missile technology, and to honor UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang because of its renegade nuclear program.
“I was frank that better relations with the United States will only be possible if the entire government respects the international consensus against the spread of nuclear weapons,” she said. “We look to Naypyitaw to honor UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 and sever illicit ties with North Korea.”
The US official who sat in on the talks said Thein Sein had expressed “strong reassurances” on commitment to upholding UN Security Council resolutions.
The official cited Thein Sein as saying Myanmar was strongly considering signing the International Atomic Energy Agency additional protocol which would allow more latitude for inspections. US officials have played down fear Myanmar’s ties with North Korea had broadened to include a nuclear program.
Suu Kyi said on Wednesday she fully backed Washington’s effort to gauge Myanmar’s reforms since the military nominally gave up power to civilian leaders following elections last year.
“I think we have to be prepared to take risk. Nothing is guaranteed,” Suu Kyi told reporters in Washington in a public video call from her home in Yangon, where she was held in detention for 15 of the last 21 years before being released in November last year.
But Suu Kyi — a Nobel peace laureate and towering figure for Myanmar’s embattled democracy movement — said the United States must remain watchful that the army-backed government did not halt or roll back reforms, and “speak out loud and clear” if people engaging in politics were arrested.
Suu Kyi confirmed she would run in upcoming by-elections, ending a boycott of Myanmar’s political system.
Clinton’s visit was reported on page two of the main state-run New Light of Mynamar newspaper, with a photograph of her arrival and two paragraphs on who accompanied her and met her at the airport.
Its front page focused on the prime minister of Belarus, who is also visiting in coming days, and preparations for a regional economic cooperation meeting.
