THE country claimed that “discriminatory measures” are shutting it out of the Asean bloc after a summit last week saw the organisation continue to blacklist Myanmar’s post-coup leadership.
The 11-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) has shunned Myanmar from summits since the military in 2021 deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and detained the democratic figurehead, triggering a civil war.
After five years of martial rule, the junta staged a tightly restricted election excluding Suu Kyi’s party that last month resulted in putsch-leading military chief Min Aung Hlaing taking over as civilian president.
At an Asean summit in the Philippines last week, the hosting country’s President Ferdinand Marcos complained that there had not been “any progress in Myanmar”.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry, in a statement yesterday, claimed that on the contrary, “positive developments taking place in Myanmar have been well-recognised by the majority of Asean Member States”.
“However, it is observed that a few Member States continue to maintain restrictions, discriminatory measures and the exclusion of the Myanmar government from equal representation.”
Asean is suffering from a fraying consensus over Myanmar, analysts say, with frustration growing over a lack of progress on the bloc’s peace plan to end the nation’s civil war.
Some countries, such as neighbouring Thailand, congratulated Min Aung Hlaing when he was sworn in, pledging to make efforts to stabilise their shared border.
Others have remained aloof about his presidential inauguration following an election widely criticised by democracy monitors for cracking down on dissent and not including opposition parties and voters in rebel-held territories. — AFP
