Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, U Wunna Maung Lwin held a diplomatic briefing on the recent development in Myanmar at Wun Zin Min Yaza Hall, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yangon on February 8.

Firstly, the Union Minister briefed the attendees the matters related to the emergence of the State Administration Council (SAC) and scrutinizing of 2020 electoral process in addressing the issues of electoral fraud following the declaring of state of emergency and transferring of three branches of State power by the Pro Tem President to the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services, Tatmadaw and the SAC’s endeavours to implement five-point roadmap to ensure the holding of multi-party democratic elections in accordance with the Constitution. The Union Minister highlighted that the State Administration Council from central level to state/region levels are comprised of members of ethnic nationalities, political parties and members of the Tatmadaw that clearly shows SAC is not a military administration.

Next, the Union Minister briefed in details regarding the establishment of friendly relations with foreign nations in accordance with the foreign policy enshrined in the 2008 Constitution, which is an independent, active and non-aligned policy, outgoing visits and incoming visits of foreign delegations, Myanmar’s cooperation under the ASEAN frameworks as member of ASEAN, the significant development with regard to the implementation of the five-point consensus of ASEAN and Myanmar’s cooperation with the United Nations.

The Union Minister then outlined the government’s effective measures to control and contain COVID-19 pandemic with the belief that nothing is more valuable than people’s lives and endeavours to acquire the COVID-19 vaccines from friendly countries including China, India and Russia as well as arrangements being made for the return of 97,000 Myanmar nationals stranded abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Moreover, the Union Minister also highlighted the incidents of killings of innocent civilians and government employees, casualties of monks, damages of public buildings and infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads and bridges by PDF, NUG, CRPH terrorist groups and their affiliates, the investigation and legal actions taken against those have links to terrorist organizations, the seizures of arms and ammunition and notifying of those terrorist groups and their terrorist acts to UNCTED, ACCT, ASEANAPOL and INTERPOL to denounce them and calls for their positive cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The Union Minister also reaffirmed Myanmar’s commitment to implement the national tasks of the SAC, namely, prosperity and development of the State and food sufficiency through effective utilization of the national and human resources of the country, to reinvigorate the economy, to strictly control, contain and combat the COVID-19 pandemic, to build a multiparty democratic Union based on democracy and federalism and to maintain existing friendly relations and expand mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of equality, mutual respect and understanding with countries around the world and neighbouring countries in particular.

U Khin Maung Oo, member of the Union Election Commission (UEC) briefed the attendees about the measures taken by the UEC including findings of the investigations on 2020 multi-party general election and preparation for upcoming elections in accord with the five-point roadmap of the SAC.

Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, Member of Advisory Board of the Chairman of the SAC, briefed and explained about election fraud and irregularities in 2020 general election, and root cause of the violence and the real situation in Myanmar.

Dr. Salai Ngun Cung Lian joined the briefing by explaining the SAC’s assumption of the State responsibilities is in accord with the provisions of the 2008 Constitution.

Police Brig. Gen. Aung Htay Myint of Myanmar Police Force, Ministry of Home Affairs informed the attendees about the acts of terrors committed by those terrorist groups such as CRPH, NUG and PDF to destabilize the country. He also emphasized that accepting and supporting terrorist group or a terrorist of a country is a crime as described in the United Nations’ Security Council Resolutions such as 2176, 2368 and 2050.

Dr. Tun Tin, Deputy Director-General from the Ministry of Health also updated the preventive measures to contain and control the Covid-19 pandemic in light of the risks posed by the new variant ̶ Omicron.

U Khin Maung Oo, Member of the Union Election Commission, Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, Daw Yin Yin Oo and Dr. Salai Ngun Cung Lian, members of Advisory Board of the Chairman of the SAC, and senior officials from respective ministries of Myanmar, Ambassadors of foreign embassies, diplomats and representative from the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office joined the briefing.