Government peace negotiators and representatives of 21 ethnic armed groups have extended ceasefire talks for an extra day.

Negotiations at the Myanmar Peace Centre in Rangoon started on Saturday and have been ongoing over the weekend.

Delegates are aiming to agree on points that will be included in the draft for a nationwide ceasefire.

Pado Kwe Htoo Win from Karen National Union and member of the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) said they agreed to extend their talks as they needed more time to discuss one of the subjects.

“We still need to discuss certain subjects that we are yet to reach an agreement on; and so to finalise discussions, we decided to extend the negotiation process,” he said.

Special advisor to the Myanmar Peace Centre, Hla Maung Shwe said the delegates wanted more time to discuss the first chapter of the draft ceasefire agreement.

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“We are having discussions on the draft agreement’s Preamble and Chapter-1: ‘Principals’, which is the most crucial part of the agreement. We did not complete discussion on this chapter so we decided to continue the meeting on Monday,” he said.

There were a few new faces present at the Rangoon talks – representatives from the United Wa State Party, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), the All-Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), the National Democratic Alliance Army, and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, all attended the ceasefire talks for the first time.

This round of talks is expected to close later on Monday.