Obama to hold talks with Myanmar leader

Manila:  President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, next month in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

The November 15 meeting between Obama and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will take place on the sidelines of an annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in Singapore, US Ambassador for Asean Affairs Scot Marciel said yesterday.

Myanmar's prime minister Thein Sein will attend the meeting, which marks the 32nd anniversary of Washington's relations with Asean, senior Myanmar diplomat Min Lwin said in Manila.

The junta chief, Senior General Than Shwe, typically shuns official meetings outside Myanmar.

The talks are to be the highest-level contact between Myanmar and the US in at least two decades.

Officials have not said if Obama will meet privately with Thein Sein.

The last US president to meet a Myanmar head of state was Lyndon B. Johnson, who held talks with then Prime Minister Ne Win in September 1966 during a state visit to Washington, according to Richard Mei, the US Embassy spokesman in Myanmar.

Under Obama, Washington has reversed the Bush administration's policy of shunning Myanmar in favour of direct talks with the Southeast Asian country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Myanmar welcomes the shift in US policy, Min Lwin said, describing the change as "positive".

Marciel and Min Lwin were in Manila along with other senior Asean diplomats to finalise the agenda for Obama's meeting with Asean leaders.

"What we're trying to do is to step up and increase our engagement with Asean," Marciel said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo has said Asean welcomes the Obama administration's new policy of engagement with Myanmar, adding that Southeast Asian governments have continued talking with the junta while constantly prodding it to move toward democracy.

"All of us talk with Myanmar," he said. "There is no harm in talking."