MYANMAR ENGAGEMENT
The summits follow a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers who were expected on Thursday to agree on a communique that would include a reference to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar.
But there was no sign of the statement as of late Thursday. Reasons for the delay were unclear but an ASEAN official said a communique was being finalised and would be released soon.
ASEAN chair Indonesia on Wednesday urged the group’s foreign ministers to remain united in tackling the escalating violence in Myanmar and push its military leaders to implement a five-point peace plan agreed shortly after they mounted a coup in early 2021.
Malaysia, a vocal critic of the junta, urged ASEAN to strongly condemn the junta’s actions, including violence.
“I pressed for a stronger statement on this issue to be included in the joint communique of the ASEAN ministerial meeting,” Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Junta officials have been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings due to the lack of progress on the plan, which calls for a halt to violence and inclusive dialogue.
REGIONAL RIFTS APPARENT
Rifts within ASEAN over Myanmar were highlighted when Thailand invited Myanmar military officials to a meeting last month aimed at “re-engaging” with the junta.
Most ASEAN members shunned the meeting, which Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai defended, saying his country was suffering in terms of its border, trade and refugee problems.
Don said on Wednesday he had recently met Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first foreign official to be granted access to the Nobel laureate since her detention by the military more than two years ago.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, made up of loyalists to Suu Kyi’s ousted administration, has discouraged ASEAN from engaging with the junta unless it releases all political prisoners.