Peace Commission member Aung Soe said that the third session of 21st Century Panglong Conference – Union Peace Conference had been postponed to February since the scheduled date in the last week of January was not convenient.
“It was scheduled be held in the last week of January. Now it is so close to the scheduled date we are awaiting other non-signatories of the ceasefire agreement to enable them to sign it so the 21st Century Panglong Conference will be postponed to next month. All of us are negotiating on this. And RCSS (Restoration Council of Shan State) is also convening their national-level political dialogue. The results from this dialogue must be submitted to Panglong Conference for deliberations along with the unfinished points from the previous session,” he said.
Previously the government planned to convene the conference in the last week of January but some ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) which have signed Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), demanded it postponed.
Aung Soe added that national-level political dialogues to be made by each of ethnic nationalities had not been held and this was one of the reasons for the postponement.
Aung Soe said the exact new scheduled date is uncertain as the top leaders of the country were still discussing it.