Thailand started the delivery of aid to military-ruled Myanmar on Monday, in a humanitarian initiative that seeks to pave the way for talks between warring camps after three years of instability and violence triggered by a coup.
The first batch of 4,000 relief bags carrying rice, dried food, and other essentials for 20,000 people was delivered in a convoy by the Thai Red Cross to its Myanmar counterpart at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing, Thailand's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The project is part of a wider peace initiative by Thailand to establish a humanitarian corridor, backed by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as a civil war intensifies between Myanmar's military on one side and ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement on the other.