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Cambodia faces ASEAN discord as term begins
Regional group divided over approach to Myanmar junta.
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ambodia has begun its year-long ASEAN chairmanship with the postponement of a high-level meeting amid a polarizing debate over Myanmar's representation in ASEAN, nearly a year since a military coup brought protracted instability to the country.
While Cambodia initially expressed confidence that it would be the first country to host an in-person ASEAN meeting since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, the country announced last week that it had postponed the foreign ministerial retreat, ostensibly because a number of ministers would have been unable to travel to the venue.
The ASEAN foreign ministerial retreat is usually held at the beginning of the year in an informal setting to allow the ministers to have frank discussions and set the tone for the rest of the year.
The meeting was slated to be held on Jan. 18 and 19 in the city of Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia, but several ministers said they would be unable to attend, including Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, who said he would skip the meeting because he had to attend a session of parliament the next day.
The Foreign Ministry’s director general for Asian, Pacific and African affairs, Abdul Kadir Jailani, said Indonesia could understand the postponement, considering the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the region amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
“At the same time, we must also admit that within ASEAN, there are different perspectives that need to be consolidated. We need to have a common perspective regarding the issue of invitations to representatives of Myanmar,” he told reporters recently.
At the previous ASEAN Summit, hosted virtually by Brunei Darussalam in October of last year, member states agreed that in the absence of progress, Myanmar should be represented by officials at the “nonpolitical” level.
“We have to admit that even though this has been going on for a year, there has not been much progress on the ground,” Kadir said.
Read also: Cambodia shelves first ASEAN meeting over attendance ‘difficulties’
He said that Indonesia expected Cambodia, now in its third ASEAN chairmanship, to consistently implement the results of the previous ASEAN meetings and to make further progress this year.
Cambodia chaired the regional organization in 2002 and 2012, both significant years in the group’s engagement with China over rights in and to the South China Sea.
In 2002, ASEAN member states and China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. However, 10 years later the 10 member states failed to issue the annual joint statement because of a disagreement over whether to mention the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China in the waters.
The disagreement over Myanmar's representation, meanwhile, emerged among ASEAN member states early this year following Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to Naypyidaw. He claimed that the participation of an ASEAN special envoy in the ceasefire talks between Myanmar’s military regime and ethnic armed organizations was an “important step embodied in the ASEAN five-point consensus”.
Read also: Cambodian premier's visit to Myanmar sets tone of upcoming ASEAN retreat
Several countries, including Indonesia, disagreed with the assessment, insisting that the five-point consensus, made during an emergency leaders’ meeting in Jakarta, demanded a complete cessation of all hostilities, not just a ceasefire between armed groups.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Hun Sen during a video call on Friday that because there had been no significant progress on the Myanmar issue, ASEAN would have to maintain the policy of inviting only nonpolitical representatives of the country, according to a press statement published on Saturday.
Lee noted that just days after Hun Sen’s visit, Myanmar’s military resumed attacks on political opponents while the country’s ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was given additional prison sentences.
Indonesia’s Kadir said that while ASEAN had long been the cornerstone of the country’s foreign policy, including in responding to the crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia was also working on engagement outside of the association.
“The Indonesian government is also approaching various parties, both bilaterally and multilaterally. The government will certainly continue to use all available options to encourage our diplomacy [goals] in Myanmar,” he said.
