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ASEAN weighs new Myanmar policy
Indonesia is hopeful that Southeast Asian leaders will take appropriate measures to address the Myanmar junta's defiance of collective calls to end the political crisis.
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ll eyes were set on Cambodia ahead of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits on Friday, where Southeast Asian leaders are scheduled to announce their plans to handle the Myanmar junta over the next two days, while Burmese civilians began to vent their frustrations over the bloc’s perceived inefficiency.
Two months after the bloc’s Special Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (SFMM), the deadline for Naypyidaw to show improvements on the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) has now drawn to a close – and now, ASEAN is expected to take action without its consent as suggested in the recent joint communiqué.
Meanwhile, the regional organization’s dialogue partners have kept themselves busy amid tense geopolitical situations and rivalries – setting up the state for the Group of 20 meeting in Bali just four days away.
Indonesia, set to take over the leadership of ASEAN for the year ahead, called on leaders to take the appropriate steps in dealing with the crisis in Myanmar, with Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi warning there was not much progress to celebrate, in spite of the many efforts the group had made to facilitate peace talks and reconciliation between the junta and the people.
“The hope is that leaders could take a stance and take action in response to the situation in Myanmar, especially concerning the military’s absence of commitment in following the Five-Point Consensus,” Retno told a briefing in Phnom Penh.
The Five-Point Consensus is a peace initiative signed last year by ASEAN’s leaders and junta chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing that seeks to end all violence in the country and facilitate dialogue in the hope of reconciling the state and its people. Despite initially agreeing to the document, the junta backtracked just a few days later and has refused to abide by any ASEAN calls since.
In late October, Indonesia hinted that it would start engaging with members of the junta resistance, including the National Union Government (NUG), as soon as possible and without the junta’s permission. The statement came as a result of an emergency ministerial meeting in Jakarta to address the unabating crisis in Naypyidaw, in which an undisclosed document of recommendations was drafted for the November summit.
But patience is running low for Burmese civilians and activists, with multiple statements expressing disappointment with ASEAN surfacing weeks ahead of the summit. In late October, over 500 civil organizations wrote an open letter to the organization, urging for a complete disengagement with the junta with concerns that ongoing communication had only “emboldened” the military.
“Top leaders of ASEAN must take decisive action at the [summit] to exclude both political and non-political junta representatives from all ministerial and related meetings and activities,” said Khin Ohmar, a Burmese democracy activist, in a statement on Wednesday.
On the receiving end of the flurry of criticism, Cambodia has expressed that all parties should see the end of the summit before issuing any further disapproval.
“For the benefit of the settlement of the political crisis in Myanmar, we should wait for the outcomes of the incoming ASEAN Summits [...] before making any comment on this sensitive issue,” said Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry on Wednesday to local media.
While it will be days until the final verdict on Myanmar is announced, the United States and the European Union have already imposed another round of sanctions on Myanmar, punishing any companies still involved with the supply of weapons to the junta regime.
“Restrictive measures currently apply to a total of 84 individuals and 11 entities. Those designated are subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban,” read an EU statement on Tuesday.
Sitting on the fence
External geopolitical dramas had also begun to take shape on the sidelines of the Phnom Penh summit, with many of ASEAN’s dialogue partners in contention with each other. ASEAN, firm in its stance of not taking any particular side, was presented with the dilemma of balancing the tensions between the US, Russia and China.
On Thursday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced ASEAN’s upgraded partnership with Ukraine, reaffirming Phnom Penh’s “principled position on the war”.
“[Hun Sen] congratulated Ukraine on the accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and reaffirmed that Cambodia would continue to work with ASEAN members soon on the request by Ukraine to become a Sectoral Dialogue Partner of ASEAN,” a statement by the Cambodian Foreign Ministry released on Thursday read.
Despite stepping closer to becoming a full-fledged partner of the bloc, ASEAN had just a few days prior rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to address the ASEAN Summit through a prerecorded speech.
The superpower rivalry between the US and China is also anticipated over the next few days, with jabs about China being “disruptive” already being issued by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be attending the event, both having the same overarching goal of asserting their nation’s influence on the Indo-Pacific region.
But ASEAN will continue its neutral stance and not be torn apart by external rivalries, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
“Competition is normal. But in the midst of geopolitical rivalry, ASEAN cannot be any party’s proxy. That is not permissible,” he stated.
