January 17,2022
LEADER of the Informa-tion Team of the State Administration Coun-cil Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun and member of the Union Election Commission U Khin Maung Oo replied to questions raised by media at the 11th press confer-ence at the hall of the Ministry of Information on 14 January.
The leader of the informa-tion team explained the work-ing visit of Prime Minister of Cambodia Chairman of ASEAN Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN to Myanmar on 7 and 8 January 2022. Myan-mar and Cambodia established the diplomatic relations on 12 July 1955. During the visit of the Cambodian Prime Minister, the guests donated anti-COVID-19 equipment to Myanmar. Myan-mar and Cambodia join the ASE-AN, GMS and Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Co-operation Strategy (ACMECS). With regard to the visits of the Cambodian Prime Minister, the countries standing with Myan-mar are uplifting the Myanmar’s role in the global community while others posing pressure on Myanmar are still doing so.
Myanmar will further enhance relations with the countries which have good looking over Myanmar. Good results could be seen at the joint statement on the visits. Myanmar government released the statement on ceasefire with ethnic armed organization (EAO) till the end of February 2022 and agreed to further extend the ceasefire till the end of 2022. The request was released to all stakehold-ers for serving the interests of the State and the people and to stop and control the ceasefire as much as possible. Both leaders will encoruage the holding of a meeting among ASEAN special envoy, ASEAN Secretary-Gen-eral, representatives from AHA, Myanmar Red Cross Society and UN agenceies to hold a meeting. The government welcomed ap-pointment of Deputy Prime Min-ister and ASEAN Special Envoy Mr PRAK Sokhonn, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Min-ister of Foreign Affairs and Inter-national Cooperation. Myanmar will contribute to the ASEAN Special Envoy to implement five-point ASEAN concensus.
On 2 December last year, the National Defence Authorization Act-NDAA of the US approved five more per cent of defence budget of the United States than that of the previous year. Hence, it set to spend US$7.1 billion on Indo-Pacific region and arranged to spend US$0.3 bil-lion on Ukraine issue and US$4 billion on Europe. Spending of the budget is designed to control China. On 15 September 2021, the US, the UK and Australia formed the AUKUS, the trilateral secu-rity pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the Unit-ed States. QUAD was formed in 2017 aimed to dominate region-al countries and control China. The US holding up the double standard attempts to dominate the countries which do not syn-chronize with attitude of the US by applying the democracy and human rights. Myanmar has good relations with China.
The five-point road map comprises that upon comple-tion of the state of emergency when the governing is being carried out in accord with the 2008 Constitution, the election will be held. Myanmar being a country joined the ASEAN. It is necessary to pay respect to the representation of the country. Subpara 1 of Para 2 from the UN charter mentioned that “the UN is based on equalty of sogereignty of all UN member states.” Hence, if one does not acknowledge the sovereignty, in-dependent cooperation cannot be done among the countries and the international law does not need to come out. Likewise, ASEAN countries have equal rights. Its policy mentions not to interfere in internal affairs. Myanmar will emphasize rec-ommendations and proposals of ASEAN but will choose the best standing without derailment from policy and procedures of the ASEAN charter. Myanmar firmly believes Cambodia taking alternate chairmenship of ASE-AN will be capable of bringing victories to the ASEAN. In the new year message of greetings sent by Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior Gener-al Min Aung Hlaing stated that “The year 2022 is of importance. Coming 12 February is the Di-amond Jubilee Union Day and the 4 January 2023 will be the Diamond Jubilee Independence Day. As such, this year is the pre-Diamond Jubilee period. So, we have to start the new paces for restoration of the peace this year. As it is mentioned in the fourth point of the five-point road map, all stakeholders and organ-izations are invited to join the peace talks.” The government opens all the ways to the peace. Efforts will be made for ceasing armed conflicts and restoration of internal peace and stability as well as peace to some degree. The united strength from the peace will be applied in the de-velopment tasks. The National Unity and Peace Coordination Committee held the meetings with NCA signatories for 16 times, NCA non-signatories for nine times, political parties for six times, and religious leaders and peace ne-gotiators for two times from 8 March to 27 December 2021 to discuss progress of peace pro-cess and future plans. On 15 and 16 December 2021, the commit-tee held a meeting with repre-sentatives from UWSA, NDAA, MNDAA, ULA/AA, TNLA and SSPP/SSA to talk about peace process, health and regional de-velopment, minimizing armed conflicts, future plans for peace, drug control and peace and sta-bility at border regions infor-mally. The government does not have any plan to hold talks with illegal CRPH and NUG formed with NLD extremists and PDF terrorists. If some EAOs give training and install arms to ter-rorists, the consequence will derail from the NCA route and it will be the act of opposing the perteual peace the entire people aspire. The government believes it will restore the peace to some degree in 2022. Myanmar allowed Yuan/ Kyat direct payment programme at Myanmar-China border trade process. As of 11-1-2022, seven kinds of export and 31 kinds of import have been allowed to ap-ply the banking payment servic-es at Muse border trade process. In so doing, the Myanmar and Chinese banks will use the Yuan/ Kyat direct payment system. In the future, all export and impot processes will use the banking system. Such system aims to promote Myanmar-China bilat-eral trade, ensure smooth flow of commodities, smoothen the payment and accounts clearance between the two countries, and reduce reliance on US dollar. The Central Bank of Myanmar released that permission to use the direct payment of Yuan and Kyat at China-Myanmar bor-der regions under notiofication 48/2021 dated 14 December 2021.
On 23 July 2021, Myanmar faced 41 per cent of infectous rate of COVID-19. In late 2021, Omicron, a variant virus of COV-ID-19 was found. Its infection rate exceeded the Delta variant. Omicron variant virus was found at four Myanmar returnees from UAE on 28 December 2021, 12 returnees on 7 January, three returnees on 11 January, two returnees on 12 January and 42 more returnees on 13 January, totalling 63. The World Health Organization recommended to inject booster dose to the people due to emergence of Omicron variant. The infectious disease cannot easy to touch the persons with high immune efficiency. If the people are vaccinated the booster dose, it is expected to mitigate the severe infection and dead rate of the pandemic. Hence, it is necessary to espe-cially beware of Omicron. The fourth wave of the pandemic happen in neighbouring coun-tries. Hence, all the people are requested to live in accord with the health restrictions for COV-ID-19. The Ministry of Health has distributed the announcements on the revised programme on travel restrictions and perform-ing laboratory tests on the travel-lers leading to Myanmar via bor-der gates and international gates to the embassies, UN agencies and international organizations.
Diagnostic tests were per-formed on a US diplomat pass-port holder who arrived in My-anmar by air on 2 January and a diplomat of US embassy who entered the nation on 3 Janu-ary and COVID-19 virus found. Those confirmed patients were informed to receive treatment at the designated hospitals in accord with the norms of the Ministry of Health but a US em-bassy staff and pary took back two US citizens from the hotel for providing treatment under their arrangements. Their acts may cause severe impacts on public health of respective country and violation to the existing laws and guidelines of the host country as well as provisions of the Vi-enna Convention on diplomatic relations. Hence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly ob-jected it and further informed them about strictly abiding by the Myanmar’s COVID-19 pre-vention and control dsciplines. _TO BE CONTINUED_
