Obama meets Myanmar leader, says U.S. ready to lift 1997 sanctions 'soon'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama met with the primary leader of Myanmar at the White House Wednesday -- a meeting that spawned good news for the reformed Southeast Asia nation.

The president discussed various issues with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the leaders held a joint news conference in the Oval Office.

One of the issues that emerged from the meet was a pledge by Obama to lift crippling economic sanctions that were imposed on Myanmar in 1997 over the nation's authoritarian military junta, which officially dissolved in 2011.

"The Government of Burma had committed large-scale repression of the democratic opposition," the U.S. Treasury officials says in its sanctions document.

During his presidency, Obama has eased some of the restrictions levied by the Office of Foreign Assets Control as Myanmar implemented reforms.

"In May 2012, the President and the Secretary of State announced that the United States would begin easing certain financial and investment sanctions on Burma in response to the historic reforms taking place there. Since July 2012, the U.S. Government has taken various actions in response to the reforms in Burma," the OFAC document says.

The meeting was Aung San Suu Kyi's first visit to the White House as primary leader of Myanmar. A former political prisoner in her country, the state controller said she was happy to meet with Obama and noted that the United States is her country's biggest ally.

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, speaks during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday. During the meet, she described the United States as her nation's biggest ally. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI

"In my country, fighting has been going on for decades, since we became an independent nation [in 1948]," Aung San Suu Kyi said. "We have never known a time when there is peace throughout the country.

"What all of us want is a truly democratic federal [government] ... in which we can create true strength in diversity."

Obama said the United States will "soon" lift the remaining economic sanctions against Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The president said lifting the restrictions "is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see the rewards from a new way of doing business, and a new government."

Obama gave no timetable for the easing of sanctions.

The main reason all sanctions have not yet been lifted, officials say, lies in the fact that Myanmar's military still wields significant power in the country.

"The question is, how do we balance the need to continue to demonstrate that this transition is not complete with the fact that we don't want to shut ourselves and responsible investment out of the country?" Obama adviser Ben Rhodes said.

U.S. Sanctions against Myanmar