Leaders attending Myanmar's 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in the capital Nay Pyi Taw incorporated 37 principles into the union agreement on Monday. The 37 principles were among 41 proposed by a peace dialogue committee, covering a wide range of sectors from the political and economic sectors to the environment.

Hundreds of representatives from the government, military, and ethnic armed groups participated in the six-day meeting, which sought reconciliation over ethnic tensions and conflicts.

The peace talks in Myanmar were originally scheduled to last five days, but were extended for another day, as delegates struggled to reach some consensus. As CGTN’s Dave Grunebaum notes, it is no easy task to bridge the divisions left by decades of fighting, which have involved so many different groups.

The ethnic minorities had high hopes when Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy took power of the civilian side of the government in 2016.

Ethnic groups in Myanmar/VCG Photo‍

However, since then, fighting has only escalated. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Many of them have been forced to seek shelter in internally displaced person camps and monasteries. 

The peace conference in 2016 was high on symbolism and short on substance, putting more pressure for some results to emerge from this latest round of peace talks. Nonetheless, not every armed ethnic insurgent group even came to the conference, with trust a big issue after decades of war.

Refugee shelters in clashes between the army and ethnic minority militia groups in Myanmar's borderlands./VCG Photo

The ethnic minorities want greater autonomy in the regions of the country where they make up the majority. Yet how much autonomy they’ll eventually get may remain unclear in the coming years.