He was appointed in 1950 as a missionary to evangelize the Konyak Naga people by the Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India (CBCNEI).
[2][3][4][5] Longri, as a Church leader, with full cooperation from CBCNEI, NBCC, and ABFMS made sincere efforts in mediating between rebels and the government to carve out a ceasefire agreement, to make them come to the negotiation table for peace talks, and to reconcile to the authorities of the Constitution of India.
With already ten years of violence and destruction in an internal war between guerrillas and the government and an escalation during the 1964 Nagaland General Elections, Baptist Church under the leadership and guidance of Longri Ao and Kenneth Kerhuo, intervened for peace and held its third convention at Wokha from 31 January 1964 to 2 February 1964.
They will, therefore, not go unpunished....[6]Based on the passed resolution, the Wokha convention appointed a special committee headed by Longri Ao and Kenneth Kerhuo to mediate between rebels and the government.
[7] The failure to reach settlement with peace talks were followed by charges and countercharges by both Indian government and the insurgents leading to the breach of the terms of agreements; consequently, violence escalated to the extent of murder of a prominent underground leader "Kaito" on 3 August 1968.
In April 1971, State government authorities communicated in writing to Longri Ao that "to enable underground and overground leaders to have a free contact and parley for restoration of peace in Nagaland there will be no operations in search of arms/searching villages/arrests etc.
The steps for peace talks initiated this time reached its climax with the promulgation of Indira Gandhi's Emergency in 1975, as Shillong Accord of 1975.
Longri being the president of NPC, took initiative playing major role to mediate between Government of India and underground leaders like Kevi Yalie, brother of Angami Zapu Phizo, to resolve the Naga issue forever.
[9][8][10][11] Under his leadership, NPC was largely responsible for bringing an end to the major hostilities through the Shillong Accord of 1975 during President's rule in Nagaland.