Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy. (Source: VNA) Nay Pyi Taw (VNA) –The Myanmar Peace Centre on November 21 announced that the country established a trilateral Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) to implement political dialogues between the government and ethnic armed groups.
The 16-member UPDJC comprises nine representatives from political parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD), Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Arakan National Party (ANP) and Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD).
The peace process in Myanmar has seen remarkable progress. The country formed a union-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JCMC) on November 20 to implement the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) signed by the government and eight ethnic armed groups on October 15.
The formation of the UPDJC is expected to speed up the drafting of the dialogue framework, which is set to start before December 14, according to the ceasefire accord. The formal dialogues are expected to start before January 14, 2016.
On October 15, Myanmar’s government and eight ethnic armed groups out of 15 signed the NCA , marking efforts to end over 60 years of conflict in the country.-VNA
