Yangon, March 31 (IANS): Peace negotiators of the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups preliminarily signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) on Tuesday.
The signing between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and ethnic armed groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) was witnessed by President U Thein Sein, Xinhua reported.
UN Special Envoy Vijay Nambiar and Chinese special envoy for Asian Affairs Wang Yingfan were also present.
The national ceasefire agreement on Monday signifies the end of 16 months' negotiations on the draft accord.
The seven-chapter national ceasefire agreement was finalised after all sticky points were resolved during the seventh round of peace talks between the two groups.
The peace process began in November 2013.