Obama Pushes Change on Historic Myanmar Visit

(Phnom Penh) – Barack Obama has become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Myanmar, praising the courage of fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi while also providing a symbolic nod to initial reforms in a nation once notorious for political repression. During President’s meeting with Suu Kyi at the lakeside villa, Obama called the meeting a new chapter between the two countries.
Standing next to Suu Kyi, Obama said, “Here, through so many difficult years, is where she has displayed such unbreakable courage and determination. It is here where she showed that human freedom and human dignity cannot be denied.”
On her part, Suu Kyi warned that Myanmar’s reform process would be difficult. “The most difficult time in any transition is when we think success is in sight, then we have to be very careful that we are not lured by a mirage of success, and that we are working toward its genuine success for our people and friendship between our two countries,” she said.
Myanmar was politically and economically isolated from the rest of the world for decades until it ended military rule last year.