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ASEAN foreign ministers meeting scheduled for next week postponed
Cambodia, which chairs the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, attributed the postponement to "the fact that it is difficult for many ASEAN foreign ministers to travel to Cambodia" for the Jan. 18-19 meeting.
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Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen gestures during a press conference at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on September 17, 2021, as the country begins vaccinating children aged between six and 12.
(AFP/TANG CHHIN Sothy )
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ambodia said Wednesday an in-person ASEAN foreign ministers meeting scheduled for next week will be postponed, a development that could have been influenced by the regional group's response to military-ruled Myanmar.
Cambodia, which chairs the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, attributed the postponement to "the fact that it is difficult for many ASEAN foreign ministers to travel to Cambodia" for the Jan. 18-19 meeting.
Some officials have earlier expressed concerns that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's meeting with Myanmar's junta chief on Friday and their joint statement issued after that may cause friction among ASEAN member states ahead of the group's first meeting of foreign ministers this year.
A senior official from an ASEAN country, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the joint statement issued by Hun Sen and junta general Min Aung Hlaing is just "the same language" or even "weaker or misdirected" as Cambodia made concessions to Myanmar.
The official also took issue with the statement saying that the implementation of the five-point consensus "should be complementary" to the Myanmar junta's policy called a Five Point Roadmap that includes promise of "free and fair multiparty democratic elections" and handing over state duties to the winning political party in accordance with democratic standards.
The military government has alleged fraud in a 2020 November election that gave the National League for Democracy party led by detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi a landslide victory.
"It is a major concession to mention the SAC Five Point Road map, as other ASEAN statements don't endorse that as the people of Myanmar reject it," the official said, referring to Myanmar's State Administration Council, the official name of the junta that seized power after the February 2021 coup.
