He says he hopes the U.S.and Burma could "take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future."
VOA: standard.2009.08.15
They have also been used as goodwillgestures, sometimes seen as efforts to influence popular opinion - for example by boosting the popularity of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
They point in mitigation to such goodwillgestures as granting free admission to state universities for students from Darfur, and note that it was the rebel parties, not the government, which failed to show up for recent peace talks.