Washington: Unless the Burmese government is able to resolve its ongoing conflict with ethnic minorities, the country would continue to face major challenges, a top US official has said.
The US as such is expanding its engagement with Burma, increasing its developmental assistance and trying to help the country to address its ethnic challenges, said Joseph Yun, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Yun was speaking before the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee here yesterday.
"There are some serious challenges, and one of them is the difficulty between the government and ethnic minorities. There are two ethnic minority groups that are posing huge, enormous challenges.
One is the continuing fight with the Kachins up in North along the China border. The other one is the Rohingyas down in the South," Yun said.
Yun tended to agree with Rubio that the developments in Burma could become role models for other rogue States to reform.
"This as a demonstration project. I think that`s very important. It is a demonstration project for North Korea. We do not have hostile intent. If they are willing to change, we will change our posture and our policy, and we`ll help them get there," he said.
Pentagon is making slow but steady progress in developing military to military relationship with the Burmese military, Yun added.
PTI
