SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence expressed the Trump administration’s strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims on Wednesday, telling leader Aung San Suu Kyi that “persecution” by her country’s army was “without excuse”.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence hold a bilateral meeting in Singapore, November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Pence also pressed Suu Kyi to pardon two Reuters journalists who were arrested nearly a year ago and sentenced in September to seven years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act.