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RI confirms Myanmar's absence from upcoming New York meeting
Myanmar will not participate in the upcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General and the President of the 77th UN General Assembly (AUMM), Indonesia says.
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A worker adjusts an ASEAN flag at a meeting hall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Oct. 28, 2021 (Reuters/Lim Huey Teng)
M
yanmar will not participate in the upcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting with the United Nations secretary-general and the president of the 77th UN General Assembly (AUMM), Indonesia says.
“Myanmar will not be represented. There will not be any participation by Myanmar at the upcoming [AUMM] meeting,” Penny Dewi Herasati, the Foreign Ministry director for socio-culture and international organizations of developing countries, insisted to reporters on Monday.
Since the military coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership in February last year, dialogue between Naypyidaw and other international actors has been on a consistent decline, a trend that only worsened following its execution of four democracy activists in late July.
The Five-Point Consensus is an ASEAN peace initiative concurred upon by all the bloc’s leaders, including the junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing last year in Jakarta. The agreement calls for an immediate cessation of violence, dialogue among all parties, an appointment and deployment of a special envoy and the provision of humanitarian assistance by ASEAN.
Despite initially agreeing to the consensus, Min Aung Hlaing backpedaled a mere two days later, announcing that he would only consider the “suggestions made by ASEAN”.
The execution of the activists, meanwhile, prompted global outrage, including ASEAN, which declared the act to be “highly reprehensible”.
Following the executions, which have been regarded as open defiance of the Five-Point Consensus, the Myanmar government has taken on what analysts describe as “pariah status” in the regional bloc. At the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in early August, for instance, Naypyidaw sent no representatives upon the bloc’s decision that it would only be allowed to send non-political officials to the event.
