TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday pledge up to 117 billion yen ($1.03 billion) of development aid to Myanmar in a meeting in Manila with government leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The package of low-interest loans will be used to fund projects including infrastructure and small company financing meant to help improve rural incomes, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a release.

The aid pledge comes as Myanmar comes under intense criticism from human rights groups, the United Nations and other countries for a counter-insurgency operation that has sparked an exodus of more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh since August.

Abe and Suu Kyi are in the Philippines for an Association of South East Asian Nations conference including other regional leaders.

While there, Suu Kyi, whose administration has no control over the security forces under a constitution drafted during military rule, discussed the Rohingya crisis with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

China and the United States also compete for influence in Myanmar.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 11) — World leaders, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, have begun to arrive in the Philippines for the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and related meetings.

Aung San Suu Kyi arrives in Da Nang, Vietnam to attend the Asean-Apec leaders’ informal dialogue. (Photo-AFP) State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on November 9 in Da Nang, Vietnam at the invitation of Tran Dai Quang, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to attend the Asean- Apec leaders’ “informal dialogue”, the state councillor’s office reported on Thursday. The State Counsellor left Nay Pyi Taw International Airport by special flight at 10am, and arrived at Da Nang International Airport, Vietnam at 12.40pm. The Myanmar delegation was welcomed by the Vietnamese guard of honour, Chu Ngoc Anh, Vietnam’s minister for science and technology, the vice-chairman of Da Nang People’s Affairs Committee, Kyaw Soe Win, and the Myanmar ambassador to Vietnam and wife and the staff of Myanmar embassy. The Asean-Apec informal dialogue is scheduled for November 11 and 12. The Myanmar delegation, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, will be put up at Premier Village Resort in Da Nang. Thaung Tun, national security adviser, Kyaw Tin, deputy minister for Foreign Affairs and other officials accompanied Aung San Suu Kyi on the flight. At the invitation of his Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Republic of the Philippines, the State Counsellor will attend the 31st Asean Summit and other meetings in Manila. Ministers Thura Aung Ko and Kyaw Win will join her on the flight to the Philippines, along with Thaung Tun and Kyaw Tin

The State Counselor’s Office director-general U Zaw Htay told The Irrawaddy the leader is on a one-day visit to the area, adding that more details of the trip would be published soon. The State Counselor arrived in Sittwe around 8 a.m., and met with about 12 young people at the airport.She was accompanied by businesspeople Zaw Zaw of Max Myanmar Group, Nang Lang Kham of KBZ Bank, and Pyae Phyo Tayza of Htoo Group of Companies, who all made lavish donations for her development program named the UnionEnterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met the President of the People’s Republic of China Mr. Xi Jinping in Dongdating Hall, Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday afternoon after spending time with the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Mr. Li Keqiang.

On Saturday, April 29, the 10 member countries signed a declaration that hopes to increase accountability and transparency in civil service to help ASEAN achieve its goals. It was the first declaration signed by the bloc at the 30th summit, and the first under the chairmanship of the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spoke to youths from rural areas of Myanmar yesterday, stressing their importance in the path toward peace and calling them the “backbone of the country”, noting that those in rural areas make up 70 per cent of the nation’s population.

The talk with the youths took place yesterday at Myanmar International Convention Centre 2 in Nay Pyi Taw, where the State Counsellor told the youths that the peace talks were always open to the groups that had not signed the peace agreement, but that it was not possible to wait for all to sign in order to hold the second Panglong peace conference.

BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) — China and Myanmar on Monday agreed to uphold the principle of mutual respect and win-win cooperation to promote the sustained, healthy and steady development of bilateral relations.

Economic cooperation and border management will be high on the Myanmar president’s agenda as he makes his first visit to China amid an economic slowdown at home and increased fighting with armed ethnic groups, Chinese analysts said.

Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw left Naypyitw for Beijing on Thursday for a six-day visit to China. The visit is aimed at enhancing mutual understanding and promoting friendly …