U.S.-Japan Strategies for Supporting Myanmar

Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae, Japanese ambassador to the United States, discussed his country’s support for Myanmar’s political and economic development, focusing on priorities including economic growth, the rule of law, and conflict resolution. Ambassador Kyaw Myo Htut, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United States, emphasized his country’s progress and the increasingly close ties between the two nations.

Jessica Tuchman Mathews

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the global think tank with offices in Washington, DC, Moscow, Beijing, Brussels, and Beirut. Before her appointment in 1997, her career included posts in both the executive and legislative branches of government, in management and research in the nonprofit arena, and in journalism and science policy.

Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae

Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae was appointed ambassador of Japan to the United States in November 2012. Previously, he served as vice minister for foreign affairs, the top civil service job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan ( 2010–2012), and as deputy minister for foreign affairs (2008–2010). Sasae served as director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau (2005–2008), where he was Japan’s representative to the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds of the Six-Party Talks among South Korea, North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia. He was also director general of the Economic Affairs Bureau (2002–2005), deputy director general of the Foreign Policy Bureau (2001–2002), executive assistant for foreign affairs to Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori (2000–2001), and deputy director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau (1999–2000).

Kyaw Myo Htut

Ambassador Kyaw Myo Htut was appointed ambassador of Myanmar to the United States in September 2013. Previously, he served as ambassador of Myanmar to the United Kingdom (2011–2013) and deputy permanent representative of Myanmar to the United Nations in Geneva. Prior to entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008, he was a colonel in the Myanmar military. He graduated from the Defense Services Academy in central Myanmar, with a master’s degree in defense studies, in 2006.

Toshihiro Kudo of IDE-JETRO, Carnegie’s Vikram Nehru, Ryosuke Nakata of Japan International Cooperation Agency, Orit Frenkel of General Electric, and Manpreet Anand of USAID examined the current state of Myanmar’s economy and near-term development plans and prospects. They discussed development opportunities and policy priorities related to Myanmar and the region.

Toshihiro Kudo

Toshihiro Kudo is senior researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO). He is an expert in development economics and the economy of Myanmar. Previously, he was director of Southeast Asian Studies Group II of the Area Studies Center at IDE-JETRO. He served in Yangon as visiting research fellow at Yangon Institute of Economics and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (2000–2003).

Vikram Nehru

Vikram Nehru is a senior associate in the Asia Program and Bakrie Chair in Southeast Asian Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. An expert on development economics, growth, poverty reduction, debt sustainability, governance, and the performance and prospects of East Asia, his research focuses on the economic, political, and strategic issues confronting Asia, particularly Southeast Asia.

Manpreet Anand

Manpreet Anand currently serves as a senior adviser in the Asia Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Anand was most recently with Chevron Corporation, where he worked as a senior policy adviser and provided policy analysis and guidance on emerging geopolitical and socioeconomic issues. He previously served as the senior policy adviser for South and Central Asia issues on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and has also worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Orit Frenkel

Orit Frenkel is senior manager for international trade and investment at General Electric (GE). She has over twenty-five years of experience in international trade and economic policy, and she is responsible for advising and representing GE businesses on international trade and investment issues in Asia. Previously, she served as trade negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative with lead responsibility for various bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. She is a member of the U.S. Government Industry Sector Advisory Committee on Trade in Services.

Ryosuke Nakata

Ryosuke Nakata is deputy director general for the Southeast Asia and Pacific department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) where he supervises country operations for Myanmar. Nakata specializes in formulation of country assistance strategies, macroeconomic risk assessment, and providing strategic advice to operational programs. In his 25 years with JICA, he has served as senior adviser in the credit risk analysis department, deputy director general for urban and regional development in economic infrastructure department, and senior representative in the Washington D.C. office.

David Steinberg of Georgetown University, Carnegie’s Jim Schoff, Japanese Minister for Economic Affairs Kanji Yamanouchi, Kazumi Nishikawa of JETRO Singapore, and the U.S. State Department’s Judith B. Cefkin outlined recent U.S. and Japanese foreign and trade policy vis-à-vis Myanmar as a way to better understand what strategies underlie these policies, how these policies are developed and implemented, and what level of information exchange or policy coordination currently exists.

David Steinberg

 David Steinberg is a specialist on Myanmar, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and U.S. policy in Asia. He is distinguished professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University, and was director of Asian studies there for ten years. Previously, he was a representative of the Asia Foundation in Korea, Hong Kong, Burma, and Washington, distinguished professor of Korean studies at Georgetown University, and president of the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs. Earlier, as a member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, he was director for technical assistance in Asia and the Middle East, and director of Philippines, Thailand, and Burma Affairs. He spent three years in Thailand with the USAID Regional Development Office.

James L. Schoff

James L. Schoff is a senior associate in the Carnegie Asia Program. His research focuses on U.S.-Japanese relations and regional engagement, Japanese politics and security, and the private sector’s role in Japanese policymaking. He previously served as senior adviser for East Asia policy at the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense and as director of Asia Pacific Studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA).

Judith Cefkin

Judith Cefkin is a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of minister counselor. Prior to assuming her duties as senior Burma adviser, she served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok (2010–2013). Cefkin had served there previously as the ambassador’s staff assistant and as a political officer (1990–1993). Since entering the Foreign Service in 1983, Cefkin has also had overseas postings as vice consul in Mexico City, head of the political internal unit at the U.S. embassy in Paris, and political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Manila. She also served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.

Kazumi Nishikawa

Kazumi Nishikawa is special adviser to the minister at the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and executive director at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Singapore. Previously, he served in METI as director for policy planning (growth strategy) at the Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau (2012–2013), principal deputy director of the policy planning and coordination division in the Minister’s secretariat (2009–2012), principal deputy director of the small and medium size enterprises finance division (2008–2009), and deputy director of the Multilateral Trade System Department (2006–2008).

Kanji Yamanouchi

Kanji Yamanouchi is an accomplished diplomat who has had the honor of working with world leaders ranging from Aung San Suu Kyi to President Barack Obama.  As Japanese minister of economic affairs, Yamanouchi utilizes his years of experience to craft a new story for U.S.-Japan relations. Before moving to Washington, he served as deputy director general for the Asian Affairs Bureau, where he focused on regional issues with close neighbors.  He was a key instrument in negotiating with China on maritime issues and spearheaded the first Japan-China High Level Consultation on Maritime Issues. He also participated in high-level meetings with presidents from around the world and had the opportunity to enter countries previously closed to diplomats, such as North Korea, on the prime minister’s advance team as executive assistant on diplomatic affairs for Japanese Prime Ministers Hatoyama and Kan.

Thant Myint-U explained the challenges facing Myanmar as it attempts to reintegrate with the rest of Asia and the world after decades of isolation. He described the emergence of a domestic Burmese business class, the growth of Burmese migrant communities around the world, and the increasing economic development along Myanmar’s boarders as powerful social and economic forces that will support the opening process. However, there remains a deep cultural ambivalence, or even antipathy, toward globalization rooted in Myanmar’s brutal colonial history that could easily derail that process. To improve the prospects of Myanmar’s reintegration with the outside world, he suggested that priority should be given to the resolution of the remaining ethnic conflicts and to urban planning that fosters cosmopolitan and outward looking cities.

Thant Myint-U

Thant Myint-U is the founder and chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust. A historian and author, he served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations and with the United Nations Secretariat, including as the chief of policy planning in the Department of Political Affairs. In addition to his work with the Yangon Heritage Trust, he is also a special adviser to the Myanmar Peace Center, and a member of the (Myanmar) National Economic and Social Advisory Board.

Douglas H. Paal

Douglas H. Paal is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase International (2006–2008) and was an unofficial U.S. representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002–2006). He was on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 1986 and 1993 as director of Asian Affairs and then as senior director and special assistant to the president.

Carnegie’s Jim Schoff joined Clara Koh of the Embassy of Singapore, Hamish McDonald of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Prashanth Parameswaran of Tufts University to discuss the role of Myanmar’s regional neighbors and the international comunity. Myanmar’s neighbors and other nations have important roles to play in that country’s development, both from an economic/trade perspective and a political/diplomatic perspective. This panel discussion featured a select group of representatives from engaged countries, sharing their perspectives, priorities, and concerns as they considered collaborative strategies to support Myanmar.

Clara Koh

Clara Koh has been first secretary (political) at the Embassy of Singapore in Washington since 2011. Previously, she served as country officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, working on the Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand desks (2008–2011). After Cyclone Nargis hit part of Myanmar in 2008, she worked to coordinate Singapore’s humanitarian assistance package to Myanmar, and the ASEAN-led effort to bring international aid into Myanmar. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she spent four months as a research analyst with the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Aceh.

Hamish McDonald

Hamish McDonald is public policy scholar in the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Previously, he worked as Asia-Pacific editor at the Sydney Morning Herald. He has worked as a journalist in many Asian countries, including Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, India, and China. He has twice won Walkley awards, and has a report on Burma read into the record of the U.S. Congress. He is the author of books on Indonesia and India, and was made an inaugural fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2008.

Prashanth Parameswaran

Prashanth Parameswaran is a doctoral candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2009 with honors degrees in foreign affairs and peace and conflict studies. He is a freelance journalist, and his work has appeared in several Asian newspapers, including the New Straits Times, the Straits Times, and the China Post. He has also worked as a nonresident WSD-Handa fellow, researcher, and blog co-editor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Pacific Forum. He writes regularly about international politics at the Asianist.