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Top envoy lauds ASEAN's Myanmar breakthrough
Speaking in a limited interview with The Jakarta Post a day after the summit, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi revealed new details about how she led, under the instructions of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a diplomatic charge to ensure that the region could move forward in finding a solution for the violence-ridden country.
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he ASEAN leaders’ meeting on Saturday could not have happened without the support of various key stakeholders in the region, Indonesia’s top diplomat has said, as ASEAN member states prepared to tackle the “real homework” of resolving the crisis in Myanmar.
Speaking in a limited interview with The Jakarta Post a day after the summit, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi revealed new details about how she led, under the instructions of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a diplomatic charge to ensure that the region could move forward in finding a solution for the violence-ridden country.
ASEAN leaders issued a “five-point consensus” calling for the immediate cessation of violence, the start of dialogue and access to humanitarian assistance for the people of Myanmar, after meeting with junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing despite stark early protests from human rights defenders.
The leaders’ meeting was held nearly three months after Myanmar’s military, led by the senior general, launched a coup against the civilian government on Feb. 1. At the time, ASEAN immediately responded with a statement from Brunei as chair of the group calling for “dialogue, reconciliation and the return to normalcy”.
Since the upheaval, Indonesia has called for two ASEAN meetings to address the situation that was unfolding, the first of which was an informal ASEAN ministerial meeting on March 2 that was eventually held virtually.
However, this format did little to improve the situation, Retno recalled, as waves of protests against the military rulers were still met with a violent crackdown that has killed hundreds of people, including innocent bystanders.
“There was a lot of back and forth but in the end we all agreed that to address the issue, we had to do it in person,” she said on Sunday.
President Jokowi then called Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah to propose gathering leaders from the region to discuss the dire situation with the coup leader, who initially brushed off the threat of sanctions by Western nations.
Up until this point, ensuring that a regional response to the political crisis took shape required a lot of energy and Retno demonstrated her own endurance in shuttle diplomacy across the region.
Read also: Whirlwind diplomacy moves needle in ASEAN
Not satisfied with engaging her ASEAN colleagues, Retno also lobbied key global players such as China, India, Japan, the United States and Russia, making sure that they all supported ASEAN’s efforts, which in turn left little room for Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, to navigate.
“We had to engage one by one the key players in the region, who can use their influence to solve problems and support the efforts orchestrated by ASEAN, so that when we [finally] make a move, we get all the support from all the players,” the minister said.
Earlier this month, the minister announced that Russia and China were throwing their support behind ASEAN. The two countries had been blocking efforts at the United Nations Security Council to issue stronger statements against Myanmar’s military regime.
After ASEAN got the ball rolling, not even Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who has a close relationship with Myanmar’s coup leaders, sought to undermine the effort. Just two days before the meeting, after Prayut declared that he would not attend, President Jokowi called him to ensure that all parties were still on board.
On Friday night before the leaders’ meeting, Retno hosted a working dinner with her ASEAN counterparts to finalize a possible outcome for the leaders to discuss.
Read also: RI calls for Myanmar-led dialogue on crisis
The meeting, she said, was the first time since the start of the pandemic where the ministers sat together in a room and talked frankly about the issue at hand.
“That was one of the best meetings among ASEAN foreign ministers,” she said. “I appreciated the way we engaged with such candor.”
Indonesia also helped facilitate meetings for UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who was in Jakarta days before the summit was held. She was able to meet with the top diplomats of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia — and even with the coup leader himself.
Japanese news outlet Nikkei reported that the UN envoy had met Hlaing on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday, after weeks of unsuccessful attempts.
Retno insisted that the summit was just the beginning of ASEAN’s engagement with Myanmar, and that the challenge was how to ensure that the junta would respect the commitments made during the meeting.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitor group reported three deaths at the hands of Myanmar's military on Sunday, just a day after Hlaing returned from Jakarta, bringing the death toll up to 751.
