Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since 2011, having been the general secretary from 1988 to 2011. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country in Mainland Southeast Asia, and has a population of about 54 million as of 2017. Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (Rangoon).
Historically strained, Myanmar's foreign relations, particularly with Western nations, have improved since 2012. Relations became strained once more in 2017 with the Rohingya crisis. Myanmar has generally maintained warmer relations with near states and is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The history of Myanmar covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada Buddhism.
The National League for Democracy is a liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It became the country's ruling party after a landslide victory in the 2015 general election but was overthrown in a military coup d'état in early 2021 following another landslide election victory in 2020.
The Saffron Revolution was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The protests were triggered by the decision of the national military government to remove subsidies on the sales prices of fuel. The national government is the only supplier of fuels and the removal of the price subsidy immediately caused diesel and petrol prices to increase by 66–100% and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase 500% in less than a week.
This article details the chronology of events in the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 7 November 2010, in accordance with the new constitution, which was approved in a referendum held in May 2008. The election date was announced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on 13 August.
The 2011–2020 Myanmar political reforms were a series of political, economic and administrative reforms in Myanmar undertaken by the military-backed government. These reforms include the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and subsequent dialogues with her, establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, general amnesties of more than 200 political prisoners, institution of new labour laws that allow labour unions and strikes, relaxation of press censorship, and regulations of currency practices. As a consequence of the reforms, ASEAN has approved Myanmar's bid for the chairmanship in 2014. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar on 1 December 2011, to encourage further progress; it was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years. United States President Barack Obama visited one year later, becoming the first US president to visit the country.
Kyaw Tint Swe is a Burmese politician and former Minister for the Office of the State Counsellor of Myanmar.
Min Aung Hlaing is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Council since seizing power in the February 2021 coup d'état. He took the nominally civilian role of prime minister of Myanmar in August 2021 upon the formation of the Provisional Government. He has also been the commander-in-chief of Defence Services since March 2011. He previously served as Joint Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence from 2010 to 2011 and was a member of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) chaired by the president of Myanmar.
Israel–Myanmar relations refer to the bilateral relations between Israel and Myanmar. The two nations established diplomatic ties in 1953. Israel has an embassy in Yangon, and Myanmar has an embassy in Tel Aviv. The Jewish state has a longtime friendship with Myanmar, which was among the first countries in Asia to recognize Israel's independence and establish diplomatic ties with the young state. There is much cooperation between the two countries especially in the fields of agriculture and education. Myanmar Joins Singapore as a one of two Southeast Asian States that do not recognise the State of Palestine.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2020. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by or reserved for the military, to elect members to both the upper house- Amyotha Hluttaw and the lower house- Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws (legislatures). Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them. A total of 1,171 national, state, and regional seats were contested in the election, with polling having taken place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions.
A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then vested power in a military junta. Acting president Myint Swe proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared power had been transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing. It declared the results of the November 2020 general election invalid and stated its intent to hold a new election at the end of the state of emergency. The coup d'état occurred the day before the Parliament of Myanmar was due to swear in the members elected at the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from occurring. President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained, along with ministers, their deputies, and members of Parliament.
Protests in Myanmar, known locally as the Spring Revolution, began in early 2021 in opposition to the coup d'état on 1 February, staged by Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces, the Tatmadaw. As of 10 June 2022, at least 1,929 protesters have been killed and 11,004 currently arrested by the junta.
Sean Turnell is an Australian economist and former economic policy advisor to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. He is also an honorary professor of economics at Macquarie University, a former staff member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the director of research at the Myanmar Development Institute. He is currently under detention in Myanmar charged with breaching the Myanmar Official Secrets act while working in an advisory capacity to Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar–United Kingdom relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between Myanmar and the United Kingdom. Myanmar has an embassy in Mayfair, London, whilst the United Kingdom operates an embassy in Yangon.
Kyaw Zwar Minn is a Burmese diplomat who is serving as Ambassador of Myanmar to the United Kingdom, and non-resident Ambassador to Sweden, Ireland and Denmark since 2013.
General elections are expected to be held in Myanmar, possibly sometime in 2023. Voters will elect representatives to both the Amyotha Hluttaw and the Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union. The elections will be the first after the 2021 coup d'état.
