Why France now backs easing EU sanctions on Myanmar (+video)
France follows the US in supporting a lifting of sanctions on Myanmar after April 1 elections. Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD won a landslide parliamentary election.
Paris
France will urge its European Union partners to consider easing sanctions on Myanmar after Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat in an April 1 election, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Thursday.
The United States said a day earlier it was ready to relax some sanctions on Myanmar to recognize its fledgling democratic transition, including a ban on U.S. companies investing in, or offering financial services to, the country.
Juppe said Europe had to make a "gesture", given the outcome of the election in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country.
"I will propose to Brussels' (EU) partners to make a gesture on easing some sanctions," he said.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide, a victory she hailed as a "triumph of the people" after decades of military dictatorship.
