Australia on Tuesday welcomed the United States' efforts to engage with Myanmar, and said that sanctions would not succeed in forcing the military-run state to shift to democracy.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said he was supportive of US efforts to reach out to Myanmar, a pariah state that has been condemned for human rights abuses and its detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We welcome it, we encourage it... the fact that the US has embarked upon this new initiative is very welcome, we support it," Crean said on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) talks in Singapore.
"We've never seen sanctions as a solution against Myanmar, because it hurts the people," he said.
"What we've been trying to do is to get the necessary political reforms, the human rights reforms through other forms of pressure, political pressure."
Cream's comments came ahead of a meeting Sunday between US president Barack Obama and leaders of all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, including Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein.
The meeting is the first between a US president and leaders of all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the first between a US head of state and a Myanmar leader in 43 years.
Washington has recently changed its policy on Myanmar, saying it would push for engagement with the military regime because sanctions on their own had failed to bear fruit.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel held rare meetings with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein last week.
