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Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship stumbles over Myanmar discord
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Cambodia 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. (Shutterstock.com/Thapakorn Hemgo)
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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.
