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Myanmar President U Thein Sein met 63 leaders of political parties in Yangon over the weekend, calling on them to cooperate in moving forward the country's peace process to achieve the common goal of stability, peace and unity.
Negotiation is progressing and moving towards a nationwide ceasefire agreement, Thein Sein told the party leaders present.
He stressed the need to hold political dialogue to pave way for the emergence of a federal union that guarantees mutual respect and equality inspired by the nationalities.
Noting that during the course of history, durable peace could not be built through ceasefire only, he said the country is moving towards a peace process based on political dialogue.
A framework meeting for political dialogue will be held by those concerned after signing a nationwide ceasefire agreement, he said.
He said he hoped that under the framework, political dialogue will be held with full participation of the government, ethnic armed groups, political parties, parliamentarians and ethnic leaders.
He assured that the political dialogue is open for discussing all crucial matters of the country except those related to secession and those that would harm nationalsovereignty.
He expressed the belief that political dialogue will produce a historic peace pact for Myanmar.
Regarding the constitution amendment, he said he has a political goodwill of allowing every Myanmar citizen to take the lead in Myanmar politics, while willing tosee proper basic principles that can guarantee national interest and integrity of national sovereignty.
Meanwhile, on the day when his government took office for three years the presidentrevealed in his recent speech in the parliament that some agreements have been reached with ethnic leaders on the issue, expressing his belief that the six decade- long civil war is about to end soon.
The government has earlier expected that the upcoming peace talks in Hpa-an, Kayin state could be heldin April and a possible signing of the nationwide ceasefire could be signed.
In the latest development, Myanmar government formed the Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and National Cease-fire Coordination Team (NCCT) representing ethnic armed groups on March 10 agreeing to jointly draft a single text document for the nationwide cease-fire proposal ahead of expected Hpa-an peace talks.
In late January, leaders of 17 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar held a six-day conference in KNU-controlled Law Khee Lar or Laywa, agreeing in principle to government's framework proposal for " first ceasefire, then political dialogue" to achieve domestic peace. The group also included a demand for political dialogue in its draft national cease-fire accord (NCA).
The Law Khee Lar conference was a follow-up of an earlier ethnic leaders' conference held in Laiza, northernmost Kachin state in October-November 2013, in which the ethnic leaders signed an 11- point framework agreement of their own and the framework had been presented to the first round of talks with the government in Myitgyina, the capital of Kachin state, for making nationwide cease-fire deal.
The government claimedreaching individual cease-fire agreements with 14 ethnic armed groups out of 16 since the president's peace offer was extended in August 2011.
