Brotherhood Alliance pressured by China for talks

By Admin 31 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
31 May 2023, Sittwe

The junta’s National Solidarity and Peace Negotiation Committee and Brotherhood Alliance, a tripartite military alliance consisting of the Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) are due to hold talks in Mongla in eastern Shan State on Thursday.

Leaders of the AA, TNLA and MNDAA arrived in Mongla which is controlled by the National Democratic Alliance Army on Tuesday.

The TNLA is led by its vice-chairman, and the AA is led by deputy military chief Dr. Nyo Twan Awng.

Guo Bao, special envoy of foreign affairs department of China’s Yunnan Province will also attend the meeting. Political analysts believe the talks are brokered by China.

“Those three groups are members of the seven-member Northern Alliance which is under China’s influence. China might have pressured them into entering an official ceasefire with the regime. This is why they are meeting,” political analyst U Than Soe Naing told DMG.

The three armed armed groups have provided military training and munitions to resistance forces that sprung up across the country following the 2021 military coup and are fighting the regime. The regime might ask them to stop supporting the resistance movement, said political analysts.

Political analyst U Ye Htun said the three groups are pressured by China into holding talks with the regime.

“They have provided military training and arms to revolutionary organizations that emerged after the coup. If the meeting is successful, they will have to stop supporting revolutionary organizations,” he said.

In April, director-general Peng Xiubin of the International Relations Department of Chinese Communist Party visited Myanmar and met former military dictator Than Shwe and current junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

It has been more than six months since the Myanmar military and the AA entered an unofficial ceasefire in November last year.