Summary of Myanmar Peace Forum 2025

The Myanmar Peace Forum 2025, held from June 25–27 in Nay Pyi Taw, was designed as a landmark event with the theme "Towards a New Nation of Peace and Prosperity through the Integration of Peace, Elections and Development". Organized by the military-led State Administration Council’s (SAC) National Unity and Peacemaking Coordination Committee, the forum convened over 250 attendees, including key SAC leaders, ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), political parties, and diplomats from key regional powers including China, India, Russia, and Thailand. The EAOs in attendance included both signatory and non-signatory groups to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). Notably absent were the Restoration Council of Shan State, an NCA signatory, in addition to the civilian-led National Unity Government (NUG) and armed organizations that had been fighting the SAC.

At the event, two working groups - focusing respectively on “identifying ways to enhance cooperation for peace, transparent electoral processes” and the “exploration of the international community’s role in supporting peace and development efforts in building a democracy and federalism-based Union in the post-election period”- produced over 120 recommendations. Key proposals included suspending military conscription during the election period, releasing political prisoners post-election, and convening a constitutional review to reform or replace the 2008 military-drafted constitution.

The Peace Forum’s strongest through-line was its preparation for elections slated for late 2025. However, without an inclusive dialogue, electoral participation, or cessation of violence, analysts say that the coming polls risk becoming a facade to entrench SAC rule under a new name. An ethnic armed group representative described the forum as "not a political dialogue" but rather election preparation disguised as peacebuilding. Additionally notable was an SAC statement published in the newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar that extends a hand to “cooperate hand in hand” with opposition armed groups, who have thus far dismissed this offer as a ploy for legitimizing the elections.