US President Barack Obama today announced that he will send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to long shunned and sanctioned Myanmar (also called Burma) next month after detecting "flickers of progress".

The visit will be the first of its kind in five decades.
"We want to seize what could be an historic opportunity for progress and make it clear that if Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said during his diplomatic mission to southeast Asia.

In exploring a breakthrough engagement with Myanmar, the president first sought assurances of support from democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who spent 15 years on house arrest by the nation's former military dictators but is now in talks with the new civilian government about reforming the country.
The two spoke by phone on Thursday night while Obama was flying to Bali on Air Force One.
 

Source: BNA