Myanmar to hold peace conference in July

The event will feature the eight armed ethnic groups which refused to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015 with the Government under former President Thein Sein.

The conference is expected to discuss measures to build a national political dialogue.

At a meeting with the Joint Monitoring Committee in April, NLD President Aung San Suu Kyi proposed a national peace conference that she called the 21 st Century Panglong Conference in order to handle ethnic conflicts in Myanmar.

The original Panglong Conference was convened in southern Shan State in 1947, during which Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San, granted autonomy to the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minorities.