US in touch with 'like-minded allies' India & Japan on Myanmar military coup: Official

A senior state department official on Tuesday said the United States is in touch with allies like India and Japan on the military coup in Myanmar as they have 'better contact' with the Burmese military.

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'We're having conversations with India & Japan'

"We have certainly been in frequent contact with our like-minded allies and partners in the region. You mentioned Japan and India, we're having daily ongoing conversations with them, and we certainly appreciate that some other countries have better contact with Burmese military than we do so we're continuing those conversations," a senior State Department official told reporters during a conference call.

"After a careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1," the State Department official added. 

US President Joe Biden had issued a statement on Monday on the current situation of Myanmar and said, "the US will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack." 

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Military Coup In Myanmar

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who became Myanmar's leader in 2016 following five decades of military rule, has cautioned repeatedly that the country's democratic reforms would only succeed if the powerful army accepted the changes. On Monday, those warnings proved prescient. The military detained Suu Kyi and other senior politicians and announced it was seizing control of the country for one year under a state of emergency. While Suu Kyi’s party won the November elections and bagged 396 out of 476 seats in the combined lower and upper houses of Parliament, the military refused to accept the results and cited ‘irregularities’ in 314 townships that could have let voters cast multiple ballots or commit “voting malpractice”. However, the country’s Myanmar’s election commission has confirmed the victory and rejected the army’s claims that were floated without any proof. 

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