Myanmar president will not attend ASEAN-U.S. summit in California

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein will not participate in the summit between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and the United States next week, media reported Friday.

“Vice president Nyan Htun will visit the United States on behalf of President Thein Sein,” said the President’s Office, according to the Burmese newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.

The ASEANU.S. summit will take place in Sunnylands, in California, on Feb 15 and 16.

The press release did not give reasons for the cancelation of the president’s visit for the summit, which will be attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and his counterparts from the ASEAN bloc that comprises Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Since 2011, Myanmar has been trying to move towards greater democratic openness following half a century of military dictatorship.

The general elections on Nov. 8, 2015 led to the victory of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party over Thein Sein and his Union Solidarity and Development Party, and the transfer of power is to take place around the end of March.

Thein Sein was the first prime minister of the last military junta and, after its dissolution in 2011, occupied the post of head of state and headed the process of political, economic and social reforms.