Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Obama to Welcome Myanmar's Suu Kyi for Talks on Sanctions

by Cindy Saine

   WHITE HOUSE --

   President Barack Obama will welcome democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to
   the White House on Wednesday, a visit seen as another clear indication
   that she is Myanmar's de facto civilian leader.

   Suu Kyi, who spent more than 20 years under house arrest in the country
   formerly known as Burma, will be making her first visit to the U.S. as
   state counselor and foreign minister -- a position she assumed when the
   country's military-era constitution prevented her from becoming
   president because her late husband and children are foreign citizens.

   White House officials said Obama was eager to hear Suu Kyi's views on
   how far the U.S. should go in lifting sanctions against the military
   junta. Since taking office in late March, Suu Kyi has not called for an
   end to all sanctions, which are seen as leverage to encourage the
   military to allow more democratic reforms.

   At a conference on Myanmar in Washington on Tuesday, deputy national
   security adviser Ben Rhodes said the White House wanted to make sure
   that U.S. sanctions were not preventing economic investment that would
   help Myanmar's people. "The view of the government matters a lot to
   us," he said.

   At Tuesday's daily State Department briefing, department deputy
   spokesman Mark Toner told reporters the lifting of sanctions always was
   a response to democratic progress. "We are not ready to pull back all
   the sanctions yet," he said. "Some of them will remain in place. We
   always retain the right to continue those as long as we feel they are
   useful."

   Toner said the U.S. was happy to welcome Suu Kyi, adding that much has
   changed over the past few years in Myanmar. He said human rights
   concerns remained, and that the U.S. supported peace and steps toward a
   fuller and stronger democracy.

   British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomes Myanmar Foreign Minister
   Aung San Suu Kyi to Downing Street in London, Sept. 13, 2016. Suu Kyi
   will visit with President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday.

   'Right thing to do' for U.S.

   Myanmar expert Lex Rieffel, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings
   Institution, a Washington public policy research group, told VOA: "I
   think it is absolutely the right thing to do to consult with Aung San
   Suu Kyi and make sure that we don't get out of ahead of her and don't
   get too far behind her. This is a country that has so many problems. It
   is hard for Americans, I believe, to even imagine the number of
   problems, the difficulty, the complexity of the problems she faces as
   the leader of this country."

   Rieffel said those problems include a lack of infrastructure, such as a
   huge shortage of electrical power needed to operate businesses.

   Over the past 20 years, the White House and Congress have maintained a
   long list of sanctions on Myanmar, including restrictions on jade and
   gemstones, and on businesses linked to the sales of arms and illegal
   drugs. Obama eased some of the sanctions in 2013, and some major U.S.
   companies, including Coca-Cola and General Motors, have ventured into
   Myanmar's economy.

   Closer ties between Myanmar and the U.S. are viewed as one of Obama's
   foreign policy successes and part of his pivot to Asia. Rieffel told
   VOA that if Suu Kyi could succeed in leading the transition to
   democracy and helping Myanmar achieve peace after 60 years of civil
   war, it would be an inspiration to other countries around the world
   that have had protracted conflicts.