YANGON — Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is to hold a second round of talks with the country's nominally-civilian government, her spokesman said on Thursday, amid tentative signs of a thaw in relations.
Friday's meeting with labour minister Aung Kyi will come two days before Suu Kyi is due to make her first overtly political trip outside Yangon since she was freed from house arrest in November.
"We do not know more details yet," Nyan Win, a spokesman for the Nobel Peace Prize winner and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told AFP.
Suu Kyi's talks with the same minister last month raised hopes for an ongoing dialogue between the two sides.
Aung Kyi, who was the liaison between Suu Kyi and the military junta before she was locked up, described that meeting as the "first step towards many things to be worked on in the future".
The talks came just days after the United States called for "concrete" progress towards democracy.
Washington has since named its first special envoy to Myanmar to pursue President Barack Obama's policy of engaging the military-backed government.
Suu Kyi was released from seven straight years of house arrest days after the controversial election last November and was warned by the regime in June to stay out of politics.
But talks with Aung Kyi, followed by an open letter offering to help broker peace in conflicts between the ever-dominant Myanmar military and ethnic minority rebels, suggest she intends to maintain a political role.
She first tested her freedom with a visit to an ancient temple city in central Myanmar in July, although politics was not officially on the agenda.
Her one-day excursion to the Bago region, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Yangon, on August 14 -- where she is due to attend a library opening and meet members of a youth forum -- will be political, the NLD has said.
In a statement issued through the NLD on Thursday, Suu Kyi called for Myanmar and its Chinese partner to "reassess" a joint dam project in Kachin state, in the north of the country, and avoid "consequences which would endanger lives and homes".
She said the country's Irrawaddy river faced various threats, including from dams, pollution and illegal logging.
The Burma Environmental Working Group, a network of activist organisations, recently called for an end to foreign investment in projects exploiting Myanmar's natural resources, accusing such activities of sparking conflict in ethnic minority areas.
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