Myanmar Hopes to Strike a Deal With Bangladesh to Solve Rohingya Refugee Crisis

A military clearance operation launched in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the Buddhist-majority country since late August.

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Stringer
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

Naypyitaw: Myanmar‘s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday she hopes talks with Bangladesh this week will result in a memorandum of understanding on the “safe return” of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh in the past three months.

A military clearance operation launched in Myanmar‘s Rakhine State has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the Buddhist-majority country since late August.

Suu Kyi spoke to reporters at the end of a meeting of senior officials at the Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, in Myanmar‘s capital Naypyitaw, where the crisis in Rakhine was discussed on the sidelines of official talks.