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ASEAN to engage Myanmar opposition, Indonesia says
Saying that “sweeping problems under the carpet is not an option for ASEAN”, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi insisted that the bloc would continue working to facilitate peace in Myanmar.
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Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (left) talks with ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi before a meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers at the ASEAN Secretariat building in Jakarta on Oct. 27, 2022. (AFP/Galih Pradipta/Pool )
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SEAN will engage with opponents of Myanmar’s junta, Indonesian officials revealed on Thursday, as part of a “unanimous” agreement to strengthen a regional peace initiative with “concrete, practical and time-bound actions”.
In the run-up to the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta, the regional bloc had faced growing pressure to firmly act against the military regime in Myanmar, which has been ignoring calls to end a brutal crackdown on political opponents and civilian protesters.
After the talks, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said the assembly saw participants airing their concerns and frustrations over the sluggish progress on the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), a set of demands put forward in April 2021 in the hope of ending the coup crisis.
“Indonesia emphasized the importance of an immediate engagement with all stakeholders, as mandated by the 5PC,” Retno said during a press briefing at the Foreign Ministry complex in Jakarta. “As a note, engagement with the junta has only been done as part of the all-round engagement. It has nothing to do with its recognition,” she asserted.
Critics have lambasted ASEAN’s continued engagement with the military, with one open letter signed by hundreds of civil society groups stating that it only “condoned and emboldened the illegal junta”.
Others called for the expulsion of Myanmar from the 10-nation organization, after the junta repeatedly blocked access to the ASEAN chair’s special envoy to meet with representatives of opposition groups in Myanmar.
Sidharto Suryodipuro, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN cooperation, insisted that the bloc had never considered kicking Myanmar out of the group.
