Malaysian foreign minister meets Myanmar opposition figure

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — The foreign minister of Myanmar’s shadow government says that a meeting she had Saturday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah was “productive.” The shadow government opposes the military council that runs the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation. The Saturday meeting in Washington was the first publicly acknowledged occasion when a ministerial-level official from one of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has had face-to-face talks with a counterpart in Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government. Their meeting took place against the backdrop of last week’s ASEAN-US Summit. The meeting is a minor breakthrough for the National Unity Government, which has sought without success international diplomatic recognition.