World

US strategy links Myanmar peace talks to rare-earth access

WASHINGTON: Washington aims to use peace diplomacy in Myanmar as a way to expand US influence and potentially gain access to the country’s rare-earth deposits, according to a recently published State Department strategy document. Reuters reported last month that US officials have quietly held talks with Myanmar’s nominally civilian government, run by the former general who led a 2021 coup, triggering a civil war that the United Nations estimates has killed 100,000 people and displaced more than