Stephane Dion and Myanmar Government

Aung San Suu Kyi: Dion, the latest in a handful of foreign ministers to visit the new Myanmar government, said the arrangement is legitimate and part of what will be a long journey for the country towards democracy. Foreign Minister Stephane Dion and Myanmar new foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi chat after a joint press conference following their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 07 April 2016, according to Huffington Post Canada. Dion called Suu Kyi, now Myanmar foreign minister, "the de facto national leader" of her country "because they have a strange rule that if you have married somebody who not of the country, you cannot be the leader of the government and of the state." Suu Kyi, the internationally recognized democracy advocate, is barred from becoming president because her late husband was British, as are her two sons. Dion was in the formerly military-controlled pariah state Thursday for a first-hand look as it takes its most formative steps towards democracy, the newly elected government having taken office last week. The rule was crafted during Myanmar decades of military rule, which Suu Kyi fought against during years of house arrest before finally prevailing last fall. She selected an ally, Htin Kyaw, to occupy the president position, while parliament created a new position of "state counsellor" for Suu Kyi that gives her powers similar to a prime minister. Suu Kyi led her once-banned party, the National League for Democracy, to a landslide victory in November. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.