The peace process would be delayed if political dialogue preceded a national ceasefire agreement, he said in the speech after the annual Tatmadaw Day parade.

“A diversity of opinion can hamper discussions and even harm existing agreements or lead to renewed armed conflict,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said.

“In order to end armed conflict, it is necessary to take a step by step approach and the most important step now is the nationwide peace accord,” he said.

“To build permanent peace we have to maintain the national ceasefire agreement and bring armed ethnic national groups back into the legal fold.”

In a telephone interview on March 27, the co-secretary of the Kayan New Land Party, Colonel Saw Lwin, told Mizzima he did not want to separate a national ceasefire from political dialogue.

“If we are to reach aceasefire first, it should include an agreement on how and when the political problem will be solved,” Colonel Saw Lwin said.

U Aye Thar Aung of the Arakan National Party also said a preliminary agreement for political dialogue should be part of the ceasefire agreement.

“It will be appropriate to start a political dialogue about three months after a ceasefire has been reached,” he told Mizzima by telephone on March 27.

The government’s Union Peace Working Committee and the armed ethnic groups’ Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team announced in Yangon on March 10 after two days of talks that they had agreed to form a joint committee to draft a ceasefire agreement in the first week of April.

Both sides would strive for the speedy implementation of the ceasefire and for political dialogue after the agreement had been signed, said a joint statement issued after the talks.

President U Thein Sein referred to the ceasefire negotiations in a nationally-broadcast speech on March 26 ahead of the third anniversary of his installation as head of state.

“The government already agreed with leaders of armed ethnic national groups to sign a nationwide peace accord soon,” U Thein Sein said.