Yangon - Myanmar's military regime has taken initial steps
towards opening an embassy in oil-rich Kuwait as a part of its policy
of enhancing diplomatic relations with the Middle East, diplomatic
sources said Tuesday.
A high-ranking delegation from the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, led
by Deputy Minister Maung Myint, recently visited Kuwait for
preliminary discussions on the reciprocal opening of embassies in
both countries, according to Yangon-based diplomatic sources.
Myanmar established diplomatic ties with Kuwait on December 16,
1998. Kuwait was the 73rd country to establish diplomatic ties with
Myanmar, once known as Burma, since the country won independence from
Britain in 1948.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Jaber
al-Sabah visited Myanmar in August and signed an agreement on
economic and technical cooperation between the two countries.
Myanmar has been diplomatically isolated and the target of
economic sanctions by the US and the European Union since the
military's brutal 1988 crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators
that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.
Myanmar has tried to counter-balance its pariah status among
Western democracies by strengthening its diplomatic relations with
China, Russia, India and now the Middle East.
Myanmar also resumed diplomatic ties with North Korea in April
2007. Relations between the two countries had been severed for 24
years after North Korean assassins in Yangon launched a bomb attack
on a high-ranking South Korean delegation of politicians.
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