Myanmar president, speaker both resign
Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw has resigned to take a rest, an official news release from the President’s Office said on Wednesday.
The vacant presidential post will be filled by election in the Union Parliament within seven working days, according to a statement of the President’s Office.
First Vice-President U Myint Swe will serve as acting president, according to the Constitution, until the Parliament reelects the president, said U Zaw Htay, director-general of the president’s office.
He said the resigned president recently underwent successful surgery in Singapore and is enjoying good health, but he insisted on his decision to resign.
U Htin Kyaw, 72, was elected president on March 30, 2016, after the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy won the 2015 general election.
Meanwhile, Myanmar Parliament Speaker U Win Myint resigned after two years, Deputy Speaker T Khun Myat said on Wednesday.
The vacant post of speaker of the House of Representatives will first be filled within seven days before the presidential re-election, said Dr Hla Moe, Parliament member from Aung Myay Thar Zan constituency, Mandalay region.
Although Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw abruptly resigned on Wednesday saying he needed a rest, the move, which comes amid reports that the 71-year-old is in ill health, is unlikely to affect the political situation in the Southeast Asian country too much. First Vice-President U Myint Swe, a retired general, will temporarily step into the executive role for now, with Htin Kyaw’s successor to be selected by parliament within seven days.
As Myanmar’s first civilian president in recent times, Htin Kyaw was elected two years ago after the National League for Democracy, led by Myanmar’s charismatic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, won a sweeping victory in the national election.
Since the NLD came to power, China has been the country most visited by Myanmar’s leaders, with Suu Kyi visiting once in 2016 and twice in 2017, and Htin Kyaw paying a visit in 2017. Such visits demonstrate the importance Myanmar’s civilian government attaches to China-Myanmar ties.
And China has demonstrated it is a friendly neighbor and trustworthy partner of Myanmar by playing a constructive role in Myanmar’s peace process and helping ease tensions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
When Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government came under fierce criticism from Western countries for the Rakhine crisis, China proposed a three-phase solution for the issue, starting with a cease-fire to help ease the crisis.
Beijing has also demonstrated its willingness to help Myanmar’s economic and social development through deepened cooperation in various fields.
Bilateral cooperation in major projects, such as the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline which was put into operation in April, has brought reciprocal benefits to the two countries and laid a solid foundation for the two neighbors to forge strengthened cooperation under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. On Tuesday, representatives of the two countries signed a letter initiating China’s aid for the construction of a new bridge in Myanmar’s northern Shan state aimed at boosting the development of cross-border trade between the two countries.
China has long recognized the strategic importance of its relations with Myanmar, which is also a priority in its peripheral diplomacy, and its leaders will be looking to work with the next president, whoever it may be, to keep up the desirable momentum in bilateral ties.