President Barack Obama announced that he will send Hillary Clinton to Myanmar in the next month, during his travels from Australia to Indonesia to attend the ASEAN economic summit. The announcement came after a phone conversation between Obama and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and indicates Myanmar, also known as Burma, has made some progress towards democracy.
Clinton’s trip will assess whether a new relationship could be forged between nations, and to test Myanmar’s commitment to economic and political reform. Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was released November of last year from 15 years of house arrest. She will be running in the next parliamentary elections.
