Blinken shares Singapore foreign minister pessimism on situation in Myanmar

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, speaks during a news conference with Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's foreign affairs minister at the US State Department in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, June 16, 2023. Blinken is departing today for a trip to China aimed at stabilizing ties with the world’s second-largest economy and reducing the risk that miscommunication ignites conflict between the two superpowers. - Bloomberg

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters): There has been no sign of improvement in the political situation in Myanmar since the 2021 coup, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said following a meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said he shared his counterpart's pessimism.

Singapore is a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), which barred Myanmar's junta from its high-level meetings after the putsch plunged the country into violence, with the military battling on multiple fronts to try to crush an armed pro-democracy resistance movement.