Aung San Suu Kyi has started her first trip to the US since being freed from house arrest in 2010 and being elected to the new Myanmar Parliament this April.

As with her trip to Europe in June, she will be feted and receive many accolades from activists and officials alike. Yet this time some criticism could mar her visit. This summer communal violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya.

Seen internationally as a champion not only of democracy, but also of human rights, Suu Kyi was asked to comment. However to date she has evaded the issue, saying that the problem needs to be resolved by Myanmar's nationality laws. On this trip it will be harder to avoid taking a position. Suu Kyi will find herself torn between maintaining her moral high ground on human rights and her position as a politician back home.

Speaking in favor of the Rohingya will result at the very least in domestic critique and at worst in loss of support back in Myanmar where this minority are not recognized as an ethnic nationality. The issue has been debated across the country, but few espouse the view that the Rohingyas should be recognized as Myanmar nationals.

Today Suu Kyi is no longer the victim of a military junta, but has to fight her political path as a part of the new Myanmar political system. This will not prove to be easy.

Her trip will overlap with Myanmar President Thein Sein's visit to the General Assembly of the UN.

The president is trying to strengthen US-Myanmar relations in light of his extensive political and economic reform program. Thein Sein's priorities of national reconciliation with Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, ethnic peace and economic reform have transformed the country in just over a year.

The reform program has also included prisoner amnesties, revised labor laws and a removal of the press censorship as well as an ongoing dialogue with civil society organizations. But US-Myanmar relations are complex. While the US has lifted some of the sanctions for US companies to invest in Myanmar, Myanmar-produced products can still not be imported to the US.

Thein Sein's priority will be to try and have that last set of sanctions removed. In the meantime however, US companies have already started to return to Myanmar. As expected, oil and gas companies are leading the way, given Myanmar's high level of natural gas resources. This comes despite Suu Kyi's warning that the extractive industries are not transparent and that all Western investment should be made in light of improving the lives of ordinary citizens, not in light of shareholders' profits.

Now that economic reform is under way, the tensions between the multinationals wanting a piece of the cake, and the local desire for equitable development, are certain to percolate into Myanmar politics.

It is likely that Suu Kyi and Thein Sein will find themselves at opposite ends of that spectrum with Suu Kyi advocating equitable growth through the support of transparency, while the president is more likely to think of the overall investment and growth figures of an economy that has a lot to catch up with. It will be interesting to see how these issues are addressed in either of the speeches the two leaders are likely to make.

Suu Kyi's trip is likely to be a landmark visit, with human rights and economic issues dominating the discussions in the US.

Further tensions during the trip are also likely to emerge if the US administration is seen to give more importance to Suu Kyi as compared to Thein Sein's visit. It would be a public relations disaster if US President Barack Obama were to meet Suu Kyi and not the president of Myanmar.

Despite all the international recognition and adulation of Suu Kyi, the president needs to be recognized and honored for the path of reform he has chosen to take. It can only be hoped that US officials realize that the current reform process would not have been possible without the cooperation of both these personalities.

The author is a South Asia expert with the Yangon-based Myanmar Egress, a nonprofit organization founded by Myanmar scholars and social workers. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn