Myanmar: US State Department Strategy Links 2030 Peace Pathway to Rare Earth Access and Anti-Scam Cooperation
A recently published US State Department integrated country strategy for Myanmar shows Washington aims to use peace diplomacy to expand US influence and potentially gain access to the country's rare-earth deposits. Approved on August 31 and posted on the department's website more recently, the document is unusually explicit: the US mission will work toward a ceasefire that "presents a pathway to a lasting peace agreement by 2030."
The strategy says the mission will facilitate at least three multistakeholder forums producing concrete agreements or policy proposals on fiscal federalism and territorial demarcation in Myanmar, which "will create opportunities to access Burma's bountiful rare earth resources and combat scam centers." The minerals lie mainly in conflict-affected areas and are currently exported to China. The document also sets a goal of at least three major commercial or investment deals above $5 million each for US companies, prioritises law-enforcement cooperation against online scam centres targeting Americans, and expands cooperation to repatriate Myanmar nationals from the United States.
The re-engagement, involving the State Department's top intelligence official Michael Vance, has included quiet talks with Myanmar's nominally civilian government run by the former general who led the 2021 coup. The document does not spell out whether Washington intends to lift sanctions: the United States maintains financial sanctions on coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing and others, though the Trump administration has removed several Myanmar nationals and companies from its sanctions list. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：缅甸仰光大金塔，Vyacheslav Argenberg 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 4.0 授权 / Photo: Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, by Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
