US President Barack Obama has asked the leader of Myanmar's military junta to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Obama, in Singapore for the ASEAN meeting, met with the regime's prime minister in a landmark encounter.
A US president has never met with a leader of the Myanmar junta.
The White House has reported Mr Obama sat with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein to talk about the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
At the official table of Southeast Asian leaders, the Myanmar Prime Minister was only four seats away from Obama.
Ten ASEAN leaders are in Singapore for wide-ranging talks.
At the start of the meeting, the US president told the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that he wants to move forward with an arms-control deal in talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Obama has been hoping the US-Russia meeting will set an agenda for further meetings to the successor to the Cold War-era agreement.
Medvedev and Obama agreed in April to reach a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty 1 before it expires on December 5th.
In Moscow in July, they also agreed to further cut the number of nuclear warheads each nation possesses.
| By AllKnowing, 11-15-09, 01:17 AM |
Myanmar and Russian weapons on the Obama agenda in AsiaMr. O needs to quit roaming the world and stay home and take care of business. Everything he has done, since being in office, has only contributed to more problems. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing and when the going get’s tough, he leaves the country. |
| By Reg373, 11-15-09, 02:12 AM |
Diplobamacy...You get to employ a carrot + stick approach when you are talking. When you isolate, it’s just stick. So the opposite side hardens, and 3rd parties don’t come over to your side of the matter — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
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| By Saint, 11-15-09, 05:11 AM |
Obama's Sight Seeing TripYou’ve hit the nail right on the head Allknowing. |
| By Anonymous, 11-15-09, 08:57 AM |
| Meeting just keep eye on upstarts and you know it. The cold war is nothing compared to upcoming religious war. |
| By justincase, 11-15-09, 11:50 AM |
| The trip is free and we are paying for it.I agreed he need to stay home and take of the business at home,that is why he has the sec.of state Hillary Clinton for....You are Allknowing...It is imperative he should stay at home, my guess is he can not fullfill his promise for change and the only change happening is/are people lossing their job and becoming un-employed and broke to the point that food stamps are need to put food on the table.... |
| By Anonymous, 11-15-09, 04:58 PM |
| Thank god the above are not in charge. Think your the only one’s facing hardship. Its global. Twats. |
| By chink_chopper, 11-15-09, 09:46 PM |
| dear obama!!!! myanmar was propped up by the commie chinx. the proliferation of nukes and missile by china is more serious than asking russia to reduce their bombas. russia is no threat at all while is the mother of all (terrorisms) don’t get this world nuke free because chinx and moslems will pull a fast one you.
are you sure that you can handle this job? |
| By Sai Leik, 11-16-09, 02:18 AM |
More balanced assessment pleaseThe international community should give a more balanced assessment of the political progress Myanmar has made and treat it with less arrogance and prejudice. It has been unfair to turn a blind eye to the progress Myanmar has made, or instead, always be picky at its government. Aung San Suu Kyi was unfortunately involved in the legal proceed. In order to maintain the justice of judicial process. Myanmar will maintain the current momentum and promote the democratic process according to the established plans.
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| By U Myint Lwin, 11-16-09, 02:52 AM |
Joint Statement on Myanmar -- 1st ASEAN-U.S. Leaders’ MeetingThe Leaders of ASEAN welcomed the high level dialogue and the policy of the United States to engage with the Government of Myanmar, as indicated by the recent visit of U.S. officials to Myanmar. We expressed our hope that this effort, as well as ASEAN’s, would contribute to broad political and economic reforms and the process will be further enhanced in the future. We also underscored the importance of achieving national reconciliation and that the general elections to be held in Myanmar in 2010 must be conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner in order to be credible to the international community. We called on the Government of Myanmar to help create the conditions for credible elections including by initiating a dialogue with all stakeholders to ensure that the process is fully inclusive. We also reiterated our continued support to the good offices of the United Nations Secretary-General in the democratization process in Myanmar. We also noted the Joint Communiqué of the 42nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phuket, 20 July 2009. |
| By califtom, 11-17-09, 02:09 AM |
More balanced assessment of Myanmar??I’m not sure which side of the story you think is not being told. Myanmar is one of the most cruel, brutal regimes on the planet and continue to be. They hold tens of thousands of political prisoners and continue to commit atrocities inside their borders that are kept secret from the rest of the world. The fact this disgusting facsist military thug state is allowed a seat in ASEAN only says how much of a joke that organization is. Every last one of those filthy generals should be jailed and tried for crimes against humanity. |
