Officials of the Joint Implementing Coordination Meeting (JICM) for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) said at the press conference held after their 8th meeting that they could reach an 8-point agreement including fixing a date for convening the fourth meeting of 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference.

This meeting which is the first move for the peace process in early 2020 was held at National Reconciliation and Peace Centre (NRPC) in Naypyitaw on January 8.

The agreements reached at this meeting are to do with work relating to Chapters 3, 4 and 6 of the NCA, to get a framework agreement between both sides for the implementation of NCA, to do work relating to the peace process to be conducted beyond 2020 in phases, and form the Union Accord Part III.

Apart from these points, they agreed on holding fourth meeting of 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in the first trimester of 2020, to form working group for interpretations of terms used in NCA, to work on inclusion of non-signatories to the peace process in the fundamentals of NCA, to hold Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) and Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meetings within two months.

After this meeting, President Office spokesman Zaw Htay said, “Our side consisted of government, parliament and Tatmadaw (Defence Services) and has a common position on fundamental federal union principles and also EAOs have their common position on these principles. We generally conceded federal union principles if we can negotiate and coordinate between our two sides. After getting these principles which acceptable by both sides, we will put them in the Part III of Federal Union Accord.”

This 4th meeting of 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference would be the last meeting during the tenure of incumbent government and NCA non-signatories EAOs would also be invited to this meeting, he added.

At her closing address delivered at this meeting, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said, “We must try hard and do more works based on these points but as the saying goes, a good beginning will ensure good results, we believe we will get better results in the future starting from this New Year.”

Tatmadaw Vice C-in-C urged all to implement these agreements reached at this meeting within short span of time.