TE24 International Desk:
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held wide-ranging talks on Myanmar on Wednesday, with Cambodia, this year’s chair of the 10-nation bloc, saying all member states were deeply disappointed by its military regime’s recent executions of pro-democracy activists.
Top diplomats held an annual meeting in Phnom Penh, their first in person since the global outbreak of the coronavirus more than two years ago, but without a representative from Myanmar.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said, “All ASEAN member states are deeply disappointed and disturbed by the execution of opposition activists despite appeals by myself and others to reconsider the death penalty in the interests of political dialogue, peace and reconciliation.” His opening speech at the meeting.
He said ASEAN must adopt a new approach to the Myanmar crisis if the military junta continues to execute opposition activists.
Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since a coup in February 2021, killed four people, including two pro-democracy activists, last week, just days before the start of a series of foreign ministers’ meetings involving ASEAN and its partners. China, Japan and the United States.
“This afternoon we had a very long discussion on Myanmar,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters, adding that the joint declaration would include at least one paragraph on the country.
According to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministers also discussed the negative impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, particularly on energy and food prices, and rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. A stable US-China relationship is essential for peace and prosperity in the region,” the ministry said in a statement, prompting Beijing to warn of serious consequences of US House Speaker Nancy’s high-profile visit to Taiwan.
Four were executed, calling Cambodia
Top diplomats from Myanmar, an ASEAN member country, will attend. The military government has been suspended from meeting since October last year, in response to the military junta’s violent crackdown on the coup that ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and subsequent pro-democracy protests.
ASEAN, including Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, has continued talks with Myanmar and called for an end to violence adopted as part of the group’s five-point agreement.
However, due to the junta’s lack of progress in implementing a consensus that was primarily focused on ending violence against its political opponents and civilian protesters, the association will change course on how to deal with Myanmar. There may be a need, said an ASEAN source on condition of anonymity.
According to a draft of the communiqué, some countries suggested that ASEAN condemned and was strongly disappointed by the execution.
On Tuesday, Asean officials told Kyodo News, the draft may also state that the death penalty is “highly reprehensible and poses a serious setback to speeding up the implementation of the consensus.
However, Myanmar officials who attended a rally ahead of the ministerial meeting protested strongly, the source said.
Malaysia is among the members that have taken a critical stance on Myanmar, with its foreign minister lamenting the lack of real progress on consensus on Sunday, tweeting “Violence continues and (in fact has worsened) and the junta is acting monopolized. And the politicization of humanitarian aid from ASEAN. .
Saifuddin, who has met with members of the shadow Myanmar government and other factions in the country’s National Unity Government formed by pro-democracy forces, said ASEAN foreign ministers should introduce a framework for the junta to implement the five-point consensus at a special summit in April 2021 of Myanmar’s junta chiefs. ASEAN leaders, including General Min Aung Hlaing, reached a consensus.
However, ASEAN Special Envoy Prak Sokhon was unable to meet Suu Kyi and leaders of her National League for Democracy, who have been imprisoned since the coup, during a recent visit to Myanmar.
Min Aung Hlaing said in a televised address on Monday that some points of the consensus would be implemented later this year, but it was unclear whether the military government would take any action.
The meeting comes ahead of its series of ASEAN-related talks until Friday, when Cambodia invited Russia, one of its partners in the group, to a series of meetings. ASEAN sources have confirmed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend.
Its senior ASEAN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said member states have divergent views on the situation in Ukraine, including sanctions imposed by Singapore, which sees the war as aggression by Russia.
