The Embassy of Myanmar in Berlin

Amb. Daw Yin Yin Myint

Amb. Daw Yin Yin Myint is the ambassador of Myanmar in Germany. She also represents Myanmar in Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland.

She is the first woman to become ambassador of Myanmar in 50 years. Amb. Myint has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1983. Her first experience abroad was when she went to study as a scholar in Hawaii University from 1985 to 1987.

Amb. Myint served as second and first secretary at the Myanmar Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, then in Rome, Italy, as deputy chief of mission. From 2001 to 2005, Mrs Myint was the director of East Asia and the Pacific Department of Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She then became chargé d’affairs at the Myanmar embassy in Washington DC, while having no appointed ambassador above her. She came back to Myanmar to be the director general of the Training, Research and Foreign Language Department. In 2012 she became Myanmar’s ambassador to Brunei, before taking her actual position in 2015 as the ambassador of Myanmar in Germany.

Both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic opened official relations with Myanmar in the 1950s, a few years after the independence of Myanmar from the United Kingdom. But after the repression of the democratic movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi by the military junta in 1988 and the flagrant violations of human rights in the country, the European Union imposed an embargo on Myanmar. In 2007 the military junta started opening the country, and the new Constitution of 2008 that transfers the power to a part-civilian government.

The normalization of the situation and the transition toward democracy in Myanmar, pushed the European Union to lift the sanctions against Myanmar in 2013. Since, the relations between Germany and Myanmar have intensified. Federal President Gauck visited Myanmar in 2014 and met with President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi.

The economic relations between Germany and Myanmar are still tainted with the former embargo and remain at a very low level. However, Germany is the most important European trade partner for Myanmar.

Since the 1960s, Myanmar has been one of the principle partner countries of German development cooperation. The main areas of cooperation are sustainable economic development, funding to small and medium-sized businesses and the promotion of trade and industry. This makes Germany the second largest foreign donor of Myanmar after Japan. However, the cooperation has been suspended between 1989 and 2011. In 2012, following the visit of Federal President Gauck to Myanmar, a debt remission agreement has been signed.