Senior members of the Tatmadaw – Myanmar’s armed forces – and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) have reportedly held a meeting in China, although the details of what was discussed has not emerged. According to a report in Eleven Media, Lieutenant-General Tun Tun Naung met with KIO chairman General N’Ban La in China’s southern Yunnan Province on August 5. The meeting came after a senior KIO delegation, and its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army, attended the third 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conference in Nay Pyi Taw in July. During that event they met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. At the event, Major General Gun Maw of the KIO said that the group would continue dialogues with the government. The KIO remains one of the most powerful ethnic armed groups still in conflict with the Tatmadaw and has not signed the government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
