The Embassy of the United States of America in Rangoon represents the official diplomatic mission of the American government in

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(Myanmar), provides assistance to American citizens and issues

visas Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

to foreign nationals, for the purposes of visiting and immigration.

Location

The American Embassy was formerly located in Downtown Rangoon, on Merchant Street between 33rd Street and 34th Street, facing the Independence Monument park and Rangoon City Hall on the other side of the park.

Sule Pagoda The Sule Pagoda (; ) is a Burmese Buddhist stupa located in the heart of downtown Yangon, occupying the centre of the city and an important space in contemporary Burmese politics, ideology and geography. According to legend, it was built before ...

was one block north on the west side of the park. The building was formerly a Bank in a colonial-era structure. In August 2007, the embassy moved to new premises further from Downtown, because of security concerns at the old site. From 2001 to 2005, as a consequence of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, roadblocks and security barriers were placed in front the building, to seal off traffic. The new embassy site, located on the University Avenue Road in Rangoon's

Kamayut Township Kamayut Township (, ; also spelt Kamaryut Township) is located in the north central part of Yangon. The township comprises ten wards, and shares borders with Hlaing township in the north, Hlaing township and Kyimyindaing township in the west, th ...

, facing

Inya Lake Inya Lake (, ''ʔīnyā kǎn'' ; formerly, Lake Victoria) is the largest lake in Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), a popular recreational area for Yangonites, and a famous location for romance in popular culture. Located 6 miles (10 km) north of ...

, was reportedly constructed at the cost of $60 million USD.

Controversy

According to WikiLeaks cables, the embassy funded some of the civil society groups in Burma that forced the government to suspend a controversial Chinese

Myitsone Dam The Myitsone Dam ( ; 'Confluence Dam') is a large dam and hydroelectric power development project which was planned to be built in northern Myanmar (Burma). The proposed construction site is at the confluence of the Mali and N’mai rivers and th ...

on the

Irrawaddy river The Irrawaddy River (, , Ayeyarwady) is the principal river of Myanmar, running through the centre of the country. Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Originating from the confluence of the ...

. According to media reports citing documents published by Germany's

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

in 2010, the embassy is the site of an electronic surveillance facility used to monitor telephones and communications networks, run jointly by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

group known as

Special Collection Service The Special Collection Service (SCS), codenamed F6, is a highly classified joint U.S. Central Intelligence Agency–National Security Agency program charged with inserting eavesdropping equipment in difficult-to-reach places, such as foreign e ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Myanmar–United States relations

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...