“Every party, organization, and person wants peace. Everyone wants to have peace as soon as possible, but we won’t be able to reach common ground until fundamental points have been established and agreed upon; these points are very important,” said Nai Hongsar in an interview with IMNA.

Nai Hongsar said the NCCT and the Union Peace-Making Working Committee (UPWC)—a committee which has been negotiating a NCA on behalf of the Burmese government—will meet again in Rangoon from August 15-16 in an attempt to hammer out their differences with respect to the agreement.

In a related development, the UPWC met with various political parties on August 11th for the first time and released a statement which said that political parties should be involved in Burma’s future political dialogue process, which is expected to begin after the NCA is concluded.

“Our meeting with the UPWC was designed to push for a tripartite political dialogue [involving the government, armed ethnic groups, and political parties] after the government and armed ethnic groups sign the nationwide ceasefire,” said Vice-Chairman of the Federal Union Party (FUP) Saw Than Myint in an interview with IMNA.

Meanwhile, it’s been reported that the NCCT and various political parties will hold a meeting on August 18th in Rangoon.

According to U Hla Maung Shwe, senior advisor to the MPC, the NCCT agreed to meet with political parties after the UPWC requested as much during a recent meeting between the UPWC and the NCCT.

In addition, U Hla Maung Shwe said: “The upcoming meeting on August 18th will be in the first time that tripartite talks will be held. Although the talks won’t include every political party, [UPWC lead negotiator] U Aung Min invited a representative from every political party based in ethnic areas.”

During the August 11th meeting between the UPWC and political parties U Aung Min said that political talks must involve the government, armed ethnic groups, political parties, and others who should be involved in political discussions.