Myanmar's government and eight armed ethnic groups have signed a ceasefire agreement, the culmination of more than two years of negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the majority of the country's long-running conflicts.
The deal fell short of its nationwide billing, with seven of the 15 armed groups invited declining to sign due to disagreements over who the process should include and ongoing distrust of Myanmar's semi-civilian government and its still-powerful military.
President Thein Sein, a former general, made the nationwide ceasefire a key platform for his reformist agenda after taking power in 2011 and ending nearly 50 years of military rule.
While the absentees were a blow to the president, who pushed for the deal to be signed ahead of a November 8 general election, he described the deal on Thursday as historic.
"Today is a very important historic day for Myanmar. We have been able to launch a new road to a peaceful future of our country," Thein Sein said at a signing ceremony attended by hundreds of diplomats, officials and rebel group representatives in the country's capital.
"There have been armed conflicts in our country since the country won independence. Ten of thousands of troops from both sides have lost their lives in this conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people living in the conflict area have suffered severely by the outcome of the fighting," he added.
Among those that signed was the Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar's oldest armed group. The KNU has fought one of the world's longest running conflicts with the Myanmar military spanning nearly 70 years.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend the ceremony.
The United Wa State Army, believed to be the largest and best equipped of the country's armed ethnic groups, has remained largely on the sidelines of the peace process since its beginning and did not sign.
Also missing is the Kachin Independence Organization, which controls vast areas of Kachin State, in Myanmar's northeast.
The group's armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, has clashed regularly with the Myanmar military since 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the two broke down.
An official from the government-linked Myanmar Peace Center told Reuters that the two groups, which operate on the Myanmar-China border, had come under pressure from China not to sign. China has denied these allegations.
All of the groups signing were removed this week by the government from its list of Unlawful Associations.
The colonial-era law was used to prosecute people who had contact with the groups. The removals could be a crucial step to the groups joining the political mainstream.
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