Myanmar military forms Peace Talks Committee

The Myanmar military has formed a Peace Talks Committee in an effort to continue negotiations with ethnic armed organisations whenever required for successfully restoring peace in the country.

The Peace Talks Committee, led by Lt-Gen Yar Pyae, was established on Monday night with four other Lieutenant Generals to continue talks with National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatories ethnic armed organizations for further strengthening of the peace process and to discuss with non-signatories until they have signed the NCA, reports Xinhua news agency.

As the multi-party general elections have been held successfully, the Covid-19 pandemic can be controlled to some degree and achieving success of eternal peace is a must for the country, it is necessary to continue talks as soon as possible with NCA signatories and non-signatories ethnic armed organizations, according to a statement from the Military True News Information Team.

The fourth session of the Union Peace Conference-21st Century Panglong was held from August 19 to 21 with the outcomes of approving the three parts of Union Accord and 54 points of agreement.

Due to the pandemic and the general elections, the peace talks were temporarily postponed.

The Myanmar general elections took place on Sunday, where 5,639 candidates, including from 87 political parties and 260 independent runners, were in the fray for 1,117 parliamentary seats.

In the elections, the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party fielded 1,106 candidates, while the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) had 1,089 to run for the parliamentary seats.

President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi are contesting seats for the House of Representatives (Lower House) and Vice President Henry Van Thio is representing Chin state's constituency for a seat in the House of Nationalities (Upper House).

The 2020 general elections are the third election under the country's 2008 Constitution.

The ruling NLD party won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the last general elections on November 8, 2015, and has been running the government since 2016.

The five-year term of the incumbent NLD government will end in March 2021..