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Reuters-Myanmar foreign minister to



Subject: Reuters-Myanmar foreign minister to visit 3 ASEAN nations

Myanmar foreign minister to visit 3 ASEAN nations
03:40 a.m. Mar 12, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, March 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung will leave
Yangon on Sunday for official visits to the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos,
official media reported.

A Foreign Ministry official described the visits as courtesy calls to fellow
member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) similar
to visits he made to Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand last month.

However, political analysts in Yangon said Win Aung would lobby for support
for Myanmar's inclusion in a meeting of ASEAN and EU foreign ministers to be
held later this month.

The European Union objects to Myanmar's participation in the meeting because
of its human rights record.

ASEAN says all its ministers should attend or none at all and the dispute
means the meeting, which is supposed to take place every two years, is
unlikely to take place.

Current EU regulations regulations bar senior Myanmar officials from
entering the bloc.