NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is set to meet the country’s new president for the first time on Friday, an official said, in the latest sign the regime is reaching out to its opponents.

The Nobel laureate, who was freed from seven straight years of detention in November, was invited by the authorities to visit the capital Naypyidaw to join President Thein Sein at an economic development workshop.

“They will meet today,” the government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In March the junta handed power to a new nominally civilian government led by former general Thein Sein after nearly half a century of military rule.

Sources in the dissident’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD) confirmed that Suu Kyi had left her home in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon by car on her way to the capital on a journey arranged by the authorities.

Filed under: 2 Burma News |