UNFC-UPWC Talks On August 18, 2011, U Thein Sein government made overture for peace talks, with the indication of taking steps from ceasefire to political dialogue. As the government armed forces were intruding into ethnic areas and launching offensives, the UNFC in 2011, responded several times with the request to U Thein Sein government to declare nationwide ceasefire and hold talks with the UNFC. At the same time, the UNFC welcome an open letter of the people’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, dated July 28, 2011, urging both sides to resolve the problem of civil war by peaceful means, without using force, and the UNFC replied on August 5, 2011, for finding solution through political dialogue. However, U Thein Sein government’s Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC) met only with individual organizations and, in the years 2011-2012, enter into ceasefire agreements with individual organizations, designated as state-level and union-level agreements. Those bilateral ceasefire agreements with the Ethnic Armed Resistance Organizations (EAROs), which were not in the process of fighting as well as those which were in the process of fighting. However, clashes continued to occur even though the ceasefire agreements have been signed. After 2012, the UPWC started to come and meet with UNFC informally. In February 2013, the UNFC and UPWC started to hold, in Chiangmai, preliminary political discussions on Framework for Political Dialogue.