Aung San Suu Kyi to visit China for first time

Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first visit to China from June 10 to 14.

She will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Efe news agency reported.

Suu Kyi will lead a delegation that will seek to build greater cooperation between China and Myanmar, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on Friday.

"It is an important occasion for both sides, after friendly cooperation in recent years," the spokesperson added.

After the dissolution of the military junta in Myanmar in 2011, its closeness has been concerning for Beijing who now seeks to improve relations with the reformist government and the opposition.

China was practically Myanmar's only global ally during the junta rule between the 1960s and 2011.

Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1991 for her peaceful fight for freedom in her country.

She spent more than 15 years under house arrest (and some time in prison).

The opposition leader's visit comes amid criticism for her apparent silence against the immigration crisis involving Rohingyas, an ethnic Muslim minority, in Myanmar.

Some 800,000 Rohingyas live in western Myanmar, while nearly a million others live in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia. However, they are officially "stateless".