Full of grace: Traditional dancers performing during the opening ceremony of the 55th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh. — AP
Top South-East Asian diplomats meeting in Cambodia’s capital intensified efforts to stop the escalating violence in Myanmar, and to address other pressing – and often divisive – regional issues.
It is the first in-person meeting of the Asean foreign ministers since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has weakened economies and complicated diplomacy, and comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and China, as well as global increases in food and energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Asean has to deal with challenges of different types and levels but never before, never like this year, have we been confronted at the same time with so many perils for the region and the world at large,” Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told the delegates ahead of the meetings.
Cambodia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of Asean, which also includes the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei in addition to Myanmar.
The military ousted the democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar in February 2021, and the country was asked not to send any political representative to the Asean meetings in response to the violence that has ensued.
In protest of that decision, Myanmar’s military government said it would send no delegate at all, so is unrepresented in the talks, complicating efforts to push the country to comply with Asean’s five-point plan for peace, which it has largely been ignoring.
“You’re trying to solve the problem in Myanmar without talking to them,” conceded Cambodia’s spokesperson for the meetings, Kung Phoak, a Foreign Ministry official who also serves as the group’s special envoy to Myanmar.
“We are trying to talk to them, trying to explain to them, trying to express our frustration.
“But at the same time we also want to hear from them, what they think, how they can do more, so that we can make sure that the implementation of the five-point consensus is moving forward as fast as possible.”
Suu Kyi’s ouster triggered widespread peaceful protests that were violently suppressed.
They have evolved into an armed resistance and the country has slipped into what some United Nations experts characterise as a civil war.
Among other things, the five-point consensus calls for dialogue among all concerned parties and an immediate end to violence.
The military-led government has shown little interest in following the plan, however, and last week announced that it had resumed judicial executions, hanging four political prisoners.
That prompted a global outcry, including from Asean countries, with Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah condemning the act as a “crime against humanity”.
New sanctions are being considered and Saifuddin said ahead of the meetings that the group should consider scrapping or revising its five-point consensus.
He said Asean’s special envoy also needs to meet with the National Unity Government, a shadow civilian administration established outside Myanmar, to help develop a new political framework.
In his opening remarks, however, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen seemed to suggest a slower approach, saying that member states were “deeply disappointed and disturbed by the execution of those opposition activists” but going on to say “if more prisoners are to be executed we will be forced to rethink our role vis-a-vis Asean’s five-point consensus.”
In a draft copy of the final communique, which was obtained by AP and could change by the end of the meetings, the ministers say they remain committed to “accelerate the implementation of the five-point consensus” and again “called for the immediate cessation of violence”.
Meanwhile, Russia said it backs the Myanmar junta’s efforts to “stabilise” the crisis-wracked country, its foreign minister said yesterday during talks with top generals, according to Russian state media.
The South-East Asian nation has been in chaos since the military’s power grab last year, with more than 2,100 people killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitor.
“We are in solidarity with the efforts (by the junta) aimed at stabilising the situation in the country,” Sergei Lavrov said during talks in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, according to the TASS news agency.
Russia is a major ally and arms supplier of the isolated junta, and has been accused by rights groups of arming the military with weapons used to attack civilians since last year’s coup. — Agencies
