Myanmar’s President Thein Sein is set to head to the United States on Monday for a landmark visit that coincides with a triumphal American tour by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Thein Sein will attend the United Nations and is expected to outline development plans during his first trip to the US since taking power last year and ushering in a period of rapid reform for his long-isolated country.
“The president will attend the UN General Assembly and will give a speech there,” said Zaw Htay, an official in the president’s office.
The former general, who last week freed dozens of political prisoners, will have to share the limelight with Suu Kyi, received with acclaim during her first trip to the US since she began her struggle for democracy more than two decades ago.
The Nobel laureate has already been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the top honour bestowed by the legislature, and has met President Barack Obama at the White House since arriving in the country last week.
But US officials have taken pains to ensure her visit does not overshadow that of Thein Sein, who they say deserves credit for Myanmar’s breathless pace of change after nearly half a century of junta rule.
In the latest sign of thawing relations, the United States last week lifted sanctions on the Myanmar president and lower house parliament speaker Shwe Mann, removing them from the US Treasury’s list of “Specially Designated Nationals”.