President Obama Announces Plans to Lift Sanctions on Myanmar

President Obama today announced plans to lift decades-long sanctions against Myanmar as the country's de facto leader makes a visit to the White House.

Obama made the announcement to reporters in the Oval Office alongside State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi just hours after signing a proclamation that announced he was restoring trade benefits to the country.

“The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time,” the president said in the Oval Office after citing progress made in Myanmar, which he cited as “Burma.” “It is the right thing to do in order to ensure the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government.”

The move comes only days after Obama's week-long trip to Asia, where he sought to highlight the benefits of his signature “Asia pivot” strategy to the region.

While Obama hailed the move as recognition of "remarkable progress" made by Myanmar in instituting democratic reforms, it is likely to generate criticism among those who argue the country still has work to do, particularly in the targeting of thousands of Rohingya Muslims in recent years.

“There is a process of beginning to reach out and address some of the ethnic minorities including in Rakhine state that historically feel discrimination and so there is a broader process of transformation, reconciliation and hope that has emerged in a country that for decades was burdened by a military dictatorship and closed off from the world,” the president said. 

Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was held under house arrest in Myanmar for 15 years, told reporters she was "grateful" to the U.S. for its support, and said work is still underway in the country to revise the constitution and pull the military further from the political system.

When asked for further details on when sanctions would be lifted, Obama replied "soon."