The Hill News

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up her visit to Burma with two meetings with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

The two women met over a private, three-hour dinner Thursday night and held a second meeting at Suu Kyi's home on Friday.

The two had, "a frank, constructive, discussion of a common agenda of issues," related to the country's political process, legal reform, and nuclear nonproliferation during their dinner, according to a senior state department official.

"It was if they had known each other a long time â€" very natural, very comfortable," the official said of the meeting.

After their meeting at Suu Kyi's home Friday, Clinton and the Nobel laureate addressed the media.

They made their comments on the porch of the lakeside home where Suu Kyi spent much of the past two decades under house arrest. She was released last year.

Clinton thanked her for her "steadfast and very clear lea! dership," according to the Associated Press.

"We have been inspired by her fearlessness in the face of intimidation and her serenity through decades of isolation, but most of all through her devotion to her country and to the freedom and dignity of her fellow citizens," she added.

Suu Kyi, who leads the Democratic movement in Burma, endorsed the United States' new engagement with country.

“If we go forward together, I am confident that there will be no turning back from the road towards democracy,” she said, according to the New York Times. “We are not on that road yet, but we hope to get there as soon as possible with the help and understanding of our friends.”

Suu Kyi has vowed to run in the next round of parliamentary elections, although a date hasn't been set yet.

Part of Clinton's aim with her visit was to learn more about the country's plans for the future, according to a senior State Department off! icial. It is also meant to encourage the Burmese government as! it slow ly loosens restrictions on its citizens.

It is the first visit by a secretary of state to that country in 50 years and signals a thawing of relations between the U.S. and military dictatorship that leads Burma.

Clinton's visit also included meetings with Burmese President Thein Sein (who she met with on Thursday) and a number of other high ranking political officials.