TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
AMM: Myanmar to be ‘closely monitored’ until summit
ASEAN will not be ‘held hostage’ by Myanmar, minister reiterates after candid regional crisis talks.
Change Size
(From left) Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, Brunei's Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, Laos' Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi shake hands as they pose for a family picture during the opening ceremony for the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh, on Aug. 3, 2022. Junta-led Myanmar was not present in the regional discussions. (AFP/Than Chinn Sothy)
A
SEAN foreign ministers have pledged to keep a close watch on Myanmar’s activities for the next three months before eventually passing judgment, as countries remain divided over how to respond to the junta’s perceived indifference to the bloc.
The 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) commenced on Wednesday morning in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh amid continuing tensions perpetuated by the crisis in Myanmar and its military leaders’ failure to honor the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus. The consensus calls for an immediate cessation of violence, all-inclusive dialogue, the appointment and dispatch of a special envoy and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Hours later, after concluding lunchtime crisis talks, some foreign ministers revealed that they had come to an agreement to monitor Myanmar until a November summit, after the country’s military overstepped diplomatic norms last week.
In his opening remarks, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen noted how with the “economic and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, one of our own [kin] has challenged the ASEAN unity, solidarity and shaken the region's stability”.
“Cambodia, as well as all ASEAN member states, are deeply disappointed and disturbed by the execution of those opposition activists. [...] If more prisoners are to be executed, we will be forced to rethink our role vis-a-vis the Five-Point Consensus,” said the premier.
On July 25, Myanmar’s military government executed four pro-democracy activists claiming that they were killers deserving of death, sparking a global outcry including criticism from ASEAN. The executions – which were in direct violation of the regional consensus – were carried out barely a week before the AMM; a timing that Cambodia had described as “highly reprehensible”.
No Myanmar representatives were present at the meeting, despite coup leader Gen. Aung Min Hlaing’s recent declaration that he would be implementing “the most possible points of the five ASEAN consensus” this year.
