BBC-Burmese Foreign Minister in Man

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Subject: BBC-Burmese Foreign Minister in Manila

Sunday, March 14, 1999 Published at 12:11 GMT
World: Asia-Pacific

Burmese Foreign Minister in Manila

The Burmese Foreign Minister, Win Aung, has arrived in the capital of the
Philippines, Manila, as a part of his tour of member countries of the
Association of South East Asian Nations ASEAN.

He is seeking their support for Burma to attend an ASEAN meeting with the
European Union due to be held this month in Berlin.

Win Aung defended Burma's right to attend the meeting, saying that ASEAN
should be united.

The EU condemns what it calls Burma's poor human rights record, and has
imposed sanctions which ban high level meetings betwen EU and Burmese
officials. Correspondents say the regular biannual meeting on cooperation
between the two regional organisations may be under threat as ASEAN says all
its members should attend or none at all. After his three day visit to the
Philippines, the Burmese Foreign Minister will go on to Vietnam and Laos.

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service