Asean, China FMs discuss Covid-19, South China Sea and Myanmar

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (right) at the Special Asean-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on June 7, 2021.PHOTO: MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

BEIJING, June 8 (The Straits Times/ANN) - The crisis in Myanmar was high on the agenda at a meeting between the foreign ministers of Asean and China in the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing on Monday (June 7), with at least three ministers voicing their concern at the lack of progress in the peace process.

In the first in-person meeting for the grouping since the pandemic began, the foreign ministers of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia via a proxy expressed disappointment that Myanmar had not kept to the “five-point consensus” agreed by Asean leaders at a special summit in April with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin was present at Monday's meeting.