On November 3, 2009, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell became the highest ranking American official to travel to Myanmar since the 1995 visit of then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright. To reinforce this message of outreach, President Obama later engaged Prime Minister Thein Sein on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in Singapore. The initiative to pragmatically engage the ruling junta in Naypyidaw has been in most part received well. Sourabh Gupta discusses Burma's motivations for re-engagement with the United States.

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