The EU's top aid official has wound up a visit to Myanmar, including the first talks between an EU commissioner and peace icon Aung San Suu Kyi, “encouraged” by official pledges of greater access to troubled areas.
“I was encouraged that the authorities are willing to expand humanitarian access to more areas of Burma/Myanmar,” said Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva in a statement released in Brussels.
“I hope to see a tangible sign of this commitment soon, in the form of permissions for humanitarian experts to visit and work in areas of substantial need,” she added.
During the two-day visit, aimed at discussing ways to step up support for the country's most vulnerable people, Ms. Georgieva held talks in the capital Naypyidaw and Yangon with government representatives and humanitarian groups.
The EU's executive arm, this year donating over €22 millions of humanitarian and disaster relief, as well as aid to refugees in Thailand, needs “assurances that humanitarian agencies have full access to those who need relief”, she said. Her talks with Ministers as well as with Ms. Suu Kui, she added, “give me hope that we will be able to do more to tackle these challenges”. The Nobel laureate “is the face and the voice of the most vulnerable people in Myanmar”, Ms. Georgieva said.
