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Myanmar needs ‘time and space’ to deal with its problems: ASEAN leaders
Southeast Asian leaders said they would give Myanmar both time and "political space" to deal with its coup crisis, following the refusal of the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to send a non-political representative to the summit this week and after ASEAN foreign ministers collectively decided to bar him from participating.
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Myanmar armed forces chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing (right) meets with Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs Erywan Yusof (left) in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on June 4. (AFP/Myanmar News Agency/-)
W
ith the absence of a high-level representative for Myanmar at the virtual ASEAN Summit this week, leaders from the region have said they would give the country “time and political space” to put its affairs in order.
According to a statement issued by current group chair Brunei Darussalam, ASEAN leaders expressed their concerns over the situation in Myanmar, nearly nine months since its armed forces launched a coup to seize power from a democratically elected government.
“We reiterate that Myanmar remains a member of the ASEAN family and recognize that Myanmar needs both time and political space to deal with its many and complex challenges,” the leaders said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.
Myanmar’s military regime refused to send a “nonpolitical” go-between after Brunei announced it would bar coupmaker Min Aung Hlaing from participating in the summit.
But Tuesday’s gesture acknowledging the complexities of Myanmar’s crisis is consistent with noninterference, which has been the guiding principle for decades of engagement among ASEAN member states.
Unlike the foreign ministers’ joint communiqué, however, which must result from a consensus of all 10 members, the chairman’s statement is the prerogative of the current chair, albeit in consultation with other ASEAN members.
Indonesia pushed for the leaders’ acknowledgment of the emergency decision by foreign ministers on Oct. 15 to only invite a non-political representative of Myanmar to the summit, an unprecedented move that irked the junta leaders on Myanmar’s State Administration Council (SAC).
