The Improvement of US-Myanmar Relations: Processes, Reasons and Prospects

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ASIA FORUM with Song Qingrun

Institute of South and Southeast Asian Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Beijing

Thursday, May 20, 2010, 14:00-16:00

Myanmar/Burma, is a strategically important and mysterious country for many. The junta government has run the country since 1962, and will hold general elections in 2010, which is gaining worldwide attention. The United States is watching with particular interest and will take this opportunity to try to influence the democratic process in Myanmar. Relations between the two countries have improved since 2009 and there have been some high-level meetings, which may influence other Western countries when formulating policy towards Myanmar. Although there have been improvements, some questions remain regarding US-Myanmar relations:

What will be the future obstacles in their bilateral relations? How easy will it be to improve their relations?

Song Qingrun argued in a recent paper that although their bilateral relations have made some progress in the past one and a half years, they will face more problems in their bilateral relations in the future; the process of improving bilateral relations will remain subject to a number of obstacles.

Song Qingrun is a researcher at the Institute of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a prominent Beijing based think tank. He is an expert on the studies of Myanmar, Thailand, and Mekong area, and has published a number of papers about the abovementioned fields.

Location: ISDP, Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka. For a map and directions, please go here.

To attend: RSVP to Ms. Martina Klimesova at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it