The government and the ten ethnic armed organizations who signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA-S EAO) have come up with a new move to advance the peace process.
Nai Aung Ma Ngay, a spokesperson for the ethnic armed organizations, delivered a statement at a press conference following a two-day formal meeting of the 8th Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM) for the NCA.
“We have been working according to the direction of the eight JICM resolutions implementation. We have discovered a new deed [ way forward for the peace process] in the [discussion]. Therefore, ceasefire-related negotiation teams from both sides will meet again on the 16th. If we meet with our original negotiation teams on the 17th and 18th, we will have a common agreement. We expect a good outcome of the fourth-session of the Union Peace Conference-21st Century Panglong,” said Nai Aung Ma Ngay.
Three agreements have been made at the recent JICM meeting held at the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) in Yangon on February 2nd and 3rd, according to U Zay Htay, a Director-General of the State Counselor’s Office.
“It was a negotiation meeting to implement the resolutions of the 8th JICM meeting. We discussed how to implement all the JICM meeting decisions. We reached three agreements after the discussion. As the three agreements are related to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) chapters 3, 5, and 6, both negotiation teams agreed to meet on February 16th. Then, we will hold the next discussions on 17 and 18 February,” U Zaw Htay added.
Discussion topics for the negotiations teams include i) establishing common NCA definitions, ii) holding national level political dialogues in advance of the Union Peace Conference and iii) holding public consultations.
“These talks have been informal for the past two years, and now it is formal. JICM is a formal meeting. Today’s discussion are formal. We have just started formal talks, and everything was going smoother than expected. It is good the two sides have been focusing on these [talks], and discussing it with mutual respect,” an adviser to the government’s Peace Commission U Hla Maung Shwe told Mon News Agency (MNA).
According to decisions made at the the 8th JICM, further cease-fire related discussions will follow the hopefully favourable outcomes of the upcoming Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong (Fourth Sessions) scheduled to convene in April.
