Myanmar’s military government confirmed Monday that it has been holding talks, brokered by China, with representatives of an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups against which it is engaged in fierce combat in the country’s northeast.
Fighting has been raging in northern part of Shan state since the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance, launched a coordinated offensive on October 27.
Much of the fighting is along Myanmar’s border with China, blocking cross-border trade and raising concern in Beijing. It also threatens further political destabilization of Myanmar, a strategic ally of China that is already tangled in civil war in many parts of the country.
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the military government’s spokesperson said in a statement phoned in to state television MRTV that the dialogue between representatives of the military government’s National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiation Committee and those of the Three Brotherhood Alliance had been held in order to reach a political solution to the current armed conflict.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news conference in Beijing that China welcomes the “positive results” of peace talks between all parties and will continue to support them.
Read more here.
