"A week after formal peace negotiations resumed, General Yawd Serk, who represents Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatories, urged all sides to work collectively to move the peace process forward. The NCA signatories’ Peace Process Steering Team, currently led by Gen. Yawd Serk of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), meets from Friday in Chiang Mai to discuss future tasks in the peace process ahead of the implementation of the eight points agreed at the Joint-Ceasefire Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM). The meeting, a gateway to the formal peace talks, was held on Jan. 8 in Naypyitaw, joining peace negotiators from the ethnic armed organizations that signed the NCA and the government. Gen. Yawd Serk said: “In laying down future tasks, we have to do so in agreement” with the time set by the JICM for the convening of the fourth 21st-century Panglong peace conference, which is scheduled for no later than April. He said reaching “the goal of building a federal Union” depended on the groups’ constant engagement in the peace process and keeping “the affairs of the Union in the forefront, rather than the affairs of one group”..."