YANGON, Aug 2 (NNN-MNA) – Myanmar postponed the fourth meeting of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference, to the third week of this month, a senior official told media on Saturday.
“The peace conference will be held on Aug 19, 20 and 21. We can’t postpone the date anymore, as there will be a campaign period of political parties for the upcoming general election soon,” said U Zaw Htay, spokesperson of the President’s Office.
The peace conference was first scheduled to be held in the first four months of this year and later postponed to be held on Aug 12, 13 and 14 due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
As part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, the number of the delegates will be reduced to 230, one-third of total 700 attendees, the official recently said.
It was learnt that the Union Accord Part III will be signed at the fourth meeting of the peace conference and the accord will include three parts relating to framework agreement on the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) implementation, post-election activities and basic federal principles.
The peace conference was held in Aug 2016, May 2017 and July 2018.
A total of 51 federal-related basic principles have been adopted into the union accord after the third conference.
The 10 ethnic armed organisations have signed the NCA with the government since it was initiated in Oct, 2015.
