Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (Center) meets United States Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell (Right) and United States embassy charge d’affaires Larry Dinger in Rangoon on May 10, 2010. (Photo: Reuters)
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WASHINGTON—Despite two rounds of failed dialogue with the Burmese military regime and the recognition that its engagement policy has made little if any progress in improving conditions inside Burma, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said on Thursday that the Obama administration would continue its policy after Burma's Nov. 7 elections.
“We have been in close consultations with all our friends in the region about our intentions which are to keep the door open, work towards a comprehensive dialogue with the regime, and follow on with its successors with the recognition that it is among all the difficult options the best possible way to go forward,” said Campbell.
His comment followed his remarks on the “Next Steps in Engaging the Asia-Pacific Region,” and were in response to a question by Priscilla Clapp, the former Charge d’ Affairs for the US Embassy in Burma, about what policy the Obama administration would follow after the elections in Burma.
“We are faced with a predicament. I think everything today suggests that the November elections will be without international legitimacy—no observers, none of the internationally accepted norms, steps that one wants to see before this election that is taking place,” Campbell said.
He added, however, that “It is also the case that the period after the election might create new players, power relationships, new structures inside the country. We think we need to stand by and see how that plays out.”
“We think that it is going to require a combination of some pressure and some rewards if progress is to be made. We are prepared to act in both cases,” said Campbell, who has been instrumental in shaping the Obama administration’s policy on Burma and who has led the US in the two rounds of talks it has had with the Burmese regime since the Obama administration announced its policy of simultaneous engagement and sanctions.
“When the Obama administration came to power, I think there was a desire to look closely at what our approach had been to Burma. After an extensive review, in which we consulted stakeholders, non-profits and governments in the region as a whole, I think we came to the conclusion that both the kind of open engagement strategy of Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] without any particular downside and the policy of sanctions by the United States had failed to accomplish its goal of change inside the country,” he said.
“So with the full support of the administration, we embarked on a dialogue with Burma on a range of issues. I think it would be fair to say today that the dialogue has been disappointing and it has been very challenging,” Campbell said.
The United States had sought some specific steps from the junta in terms of the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the commencement of a domestic dialogue within Burma, the fairness and inclusiveness of the Nov. 7 elections and the receipt of assurances about the regime's strategic relationship with North Korea.
“Now it would be fair to say that in almost every arena, we have been disappointed in what we see today,” Campbell said. “We did say at the outset, however, that we did not expect it to be a short term process, it was going to take a long period of time. We tried to not overpromise, and at every stage we tried to be honest about where we are in the process.”
Campbell, who has met Aung San Suu Kyi during his trips to Burma, said that she has supported America’s overall approach of engagement, as have many other opposition voices inside Burma.
“In my first meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, we spent the better part of 30 minutes discussing why initially the leadership wanted the dialogue with us. Neither of us were entirely sure. Frankly, we are still discussing going forward,” he said.
“Ultimately, however, one of the few benefits of this effort has been a better dialogue with the rest of South East Asia, the rest of Asean, about Burma.
