NAY PYI TAW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi is due to lay out policy guidelines for engaging ethnic armed groups in a peace process when she meets later on Tuesday with a preparatory committee for holding the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference in Nay Pyi Taw.
The committee is making preparations for political dialogue and negotiation set to be developed at the Panglong conference and matters related to citizens and civil society organization forums.
According to U Hla Maung Shwe, secretary of the preparatory committee, a review of the political framework is expected in early August after a meeting between the state counselor and non-signatory armed groups to the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) slated for the middle of this month.
The non-signatory armed groups are represented by the United Nationalities Federal Council's (UNFC) Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN).
The Myanmar government and eight signatory armed groups to the NCA have agreed to hold the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference by the last week of August.
Two of the seven non-ceasefire signatory groups -- the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) made a decision to attend the Panglong conference following a meeting in Mongla last week with the Panglong Conference Preparatory Sub-Committee, led by Dr. Tin Myo Win, the government's peace negotiator.
In the latest development, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) has said it would attend the planned Panglong conference as an observer without a decision on whether to join the NCA signing.
According to the peace negotiator, it is expected that some other non-ceasefire signatory armed groups would soon join talks with the state counselor.
The former Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups out of 15 signed the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015. After that a a union-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JCMC) was formed along with a tripartite Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), tasked with drafting a framework for holding political dialogue as part of the implementation of the NCA.
