Rice said the junta’s arrests on Saturday of political activists “clearly demonstrate that there needs to be an international presence on the ground”. “Our view is that it’s a time for moving to some kind of process of reconciliation with the democratically elected Burmese opposition,” Rice told reporters aboard a plane en route from Russia to the West Asia. “But that time is well behind us, well past. It should have happened a long, long time ago and so every day that passes is too long.”

Myanmar’s military leaders have repeatedly rebuffed calls for reforms, saying the only way to bring change to the country is to follow the junta’s seven-step “roadmap” to democracy. The stance was reiterated on Sunday in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of the junta.

“There will emerge a peaceful, modern and developed democratic nation—according to the state’s seven-step roadmap,” the newspaper’s editorial said.