Japan in talks to resume Myanmar aid

Japan and Myanmar will hold a meeting in Naypyidaw next week to discuss resuming Tokyo's official development aid, a foreign ministry official said on Thursday. The move is the latest in a series of international overtures that appear to be designed to welcome the isolated nation in from the diplomatic cold. Tokyo has continued to provide humanitarian and emergency aid to the country, but halted regular economic assistance in 2003 following the arrest and subsequent detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi was freed in November last year after seven years of house arrest, and her party has said it would return to Myanmar's official political arena after years of marginalisation under military rule.    "There has been some development in the political situation in Myanmar since Suu Kyi's release last year," said a Japanese foreign ministry official. At the meeting to be held on Monday, the first since 2003, officials from the two countries will discuss resuming Japan's aid to Myanmar to the level before the suspension, the official said. "One thing they are expected to discuss is the reasonability of resuming the construction work on a hydropower plant," the official said on the customary condition of anonymity. "Japan has told Myanmar that we are ready to restart the work, but on-the-ground research would be necessary because of the time that has elapsed since the work was stopped." Unlike major Western nations, Japan has maintained trade ties and dialogue with Myanmar, warning that a hard line approach could push it closer to neighbouring China, its main political supporter and commercial partner. The international community has begun in recent months to re-engage with the country. Last week Myanmar won approval from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to chair the 10-nation bloc in 2014 -- despite some concerns that such a diplomatic prize was premature. US President Barack Obama said Friday that Hillary Clinton would next month become the first US secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years. He said the trip was designed to stoke "flickers" of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday he would also visit Myanmar as soon as possible to encourage reforms.