As Hillary Clinton travels in Myanmar this week, she is the first American Secretary of State to visit the country in nearly half-a-century.
The brutal crackdown by the military rulers on the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of the 1980s saw much of the Western world shun Myanmar.
Unlike Washington’s decision to ostracise Myanmar, India’s open hostility to its neighbour in the late 1980s did not last too long. By the early 1990s, India had toned down its support to Suu Kyi and launched a constructive engagement with the military rulers of Myanmar.
15 of the 18 member states of the East Asia Summit that took place in Bali last weekend raised directly, or indirectly, the question of maritime security in the South China Sea
Only Cambodia and Myanmar apparently did not touch the issue in any form.
Wen reaffirmed Beijing’s readiness to discuss the issue bilaterally with all sovereign states involved in the dispute and its opposition to intervention in South China Sea by other states.
