TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The President of the United States (US) Barack Obama is set to meet with Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon on November 14, during a six-day tour that will include a stopover in China and Australia, said the White House on Tuesday.
Obama is scheduled to attend the US-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Myanmar's capital, Nay Pyi Taw, where he is also slated to meet Myanmar's President Thein Sein for a bilateral meeting, explained the statement.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is highly popular and expected to sweep the upcoming legislative elections in 2015, but Myanmar's constitution forbids Suu Kyi from participating as a presidential candidate.
Last month, Myanmar's parliament began to negotiate the possibility of a constitutional amendment, which will allow Suu Kyi to run as a presidential candidate.
Obama has called on Thein Sein last week to underscore the need for an inclusive and credible process for a successful election in 2015.
The government has promised that next year's election will be the most free and transparent election in the modern history of the nation, since the military stepped down from the helm of power and handed the executive authority to the quasi-civilian government three years ago.
Thein Sein has shocked the international community in the past number of years by implementing a series of drastic reforms, which consequently led to the lifting of severe international sanctions that had been imposed by the rest of the world.
That said, Myanmar still faces a steep upwards battle—it inherits an ambiguous legal system from the military junta—is plagued with severe poverty and there is a serious lack of supporting infrastructures that the next administration needs to immediately attend to.
Obama is also scheduled to visit China between November 10-12, where he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping, as well as to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
After Myanmar, Obama will head to Australia to attend the G20 Summit, where he will be delivering a speech on the role of US leadership in the Asia-Pacific Region.
ANTARA
