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Indonesia calls on Myanmar to accept ASEAN special envoy
Indonesia urged the Myanmar junta regime to agree to an ASEAN proposal to nominate a mediator for the ongoing political crisis or return the mandate to the region's leaders, its top diplomat has said, as the Southeast Asian bloc struggles to break the diplomatic impasse six months after the military coup on Feb. 1.
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This photo taken on April 23 and released by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry shows Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (top centre right) attending an informal dinner with her ASEAN counterparts in Jakarta, ahead of the ASEAN summit on the Myanmar crisis. About 100 days after the meeting, Retno called for her colleagues to take decisive collective action on Myanmar or return the mandate to the leaders. (AFP/Handout)
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ndonesia has urged the Myanmar junta regime to agree to an ASEAN proposal to nominate a mediator for the ongoing political crisis or return the mandate to the region's leaders, its top diplomat has said, as the bloc struggles to break the diplomatic impasse six months after the military coup.
The fall of the democratically elected civilian government in February has proven to be a large pebble in ASEAN’s shoe, with the association failing to move the needle in Myanmar after a barrage of formal and informal meetings, both virtual and in person, as well as a dozen more visits shared among the region’s foreign ministers.
ASEAN’s nine leaders met with coup maker Min Aung Hlaing in late April in Indonesia, where they made several demands to de-escalate the violence and have the junta accept the appointment of a special envoy to mediate talks between the military regime and prodemocracy groups.
But “there was no significant progress” in the implementation of the so-called Five-Point Consensus about 100 days after the meeting in Jakarta, said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who joined the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) from Washington, DC ahead of scheduled talks with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The continued delay, Retno said, would only serve to harm ASEAN, and so the group must take decisive action to respect the ASEAN leaders’ consensus, particularly as it relates to the potential mediator.
“Indonesia hopes that Myanmar will immediately agree to ASEAN's proposal regarding the appointment of a special envoy,” she said in a livestreamed press statement from the US after the ASEAN meeting.
Without referring to the proposed special envoy by name, Retno said their mandate from ASEAN must be clear.
