Myanmar’s government and ethnic armed groups on September 26 reached a consensus on the fourth draft accord on a nationwide ceasefire after five days of talks at the Myanmar Peace Center in Yangon.

An announcement released at a joint press conference said at the end of their sixth talks and after discussing some remaining points out of 104 of the draft accord, the Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC) of the government and the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) of ethnic armed groups adopted the document.

Myanmar’s parliamentarians and the army’s representatives attended the talks.

A new round of talks is due to be held in October in a bid to ink the historic long-awaited nationwide ceasefire as soon as possible.

The UPWC and leaders of the ethnic armed groups launched their first negotiation on a nationwide ceasefire in November 2013 in Myitgyina, Kachin state's capital, followed by a series of meetings in an effort to sketch out a draft nationwide ceasefire agreement.

Since taking office in March 2011, President U Thein Sein's government has strongly pushed ahead the process of national reconciliation though the signing of ceasefire deals with 14 of the 16 ethnic armed groups.

Now the country is moving forward to a nationwide ceasefire and later political dialogues for long-lasting peace.-VNA