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Myanmar's Suu Kyi supports US policy of engagement
Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of an upcoming visit by two American officials and supports the new US policy of engaging with Myanmar's military rulers, her lawyer said on Saturday.
Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of an upcoming visit by two American officials and supports the new US policy of engaging with Myanmar's military rulers, her lawyer said on Saturday.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and a deputy will be in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for a two-day visit beginning Tuesday and are scheduled to meet with the government and the opposition, including Suu Kyi.
The trip is part of a new US policy that reverses the Bush administration's shunning of Myanmar in favour of direct, high-level talks with a country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Campbell will be continuing talks he began in September in New York with senior Myanmar officials, the first such high-level contact in nearly a decade.
"We told Daw Aung San Suu Kyi about the visit of the US officials and she is aware of the visit," said Suu Kyi's party spokesman and lawyer, Nyan Win, who met with her Thursday.
"Since the US diplomats are meeting both the government and opposition members, things are happening as she had wanted."
Supporters of engagement argue that isolating the country has limited US influence among Myanmar's citizens and allowed China to establish a strong business and diplomatic foothold.