JAKARTA (AFP) – ASEAN foreign ministers gathered in Indonesia yesterday for talks dominated by the crisis in Myanmar, with the regional bloc divided over how or whether to reengage with the coup-wracked country’s ruling junta.
The two-day ASEAN meeting will be followed by talks later in the week with Beijing, Washington and other powers.
Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent.
ASEAN remains split over diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis.
Those fractures were laid bare in a draft joint communique seen by AFP, where a section on Myanmar was left blank as ASEAN members failed to agree on a unified position beforehand.
“The para is still being discussed… member countries are still taking time to propose their submission,” a Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP.
ASEAN members were making “extra efforts” in the days before the meeting – a prelude to a leaders’ summit in September – to unite the group around the Myanmar issue, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
However the official was “not too optimistic” that would happen given that a “few members have different perspectives on how to approach the problem”, they said.
Myanmar remains an ASEAN member but has been barred from high-level meetings over the junta’s failure to implement a five-point plan, agreed two years ago, to end the violence and restart negotiations to resolve the crisis.
But ASEAN efforts to kick-start the plan’s execution have been fruitless, as the junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents.
Thailand, meanwhile, hosted the junta’s foreign minister for controversial “informal talks” last month, deepening the divisions between ASEAN members.
Cambodia sent a junior diplomat while ASEAN chair Indonesia and Malaysia snubbed the meeting.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi appeared to take aim at divisions within the bloc in remarks opening a session on the first day of talks.
“Our differences should not be an excuse for us to abandon pressing human rights issues in our own region. Despite complexities on the ground, ASEAN must not waver,” she said.
CLEARER’ PLAN
The bloc’s initiatives are limited by its charter principles of consensus and noninterference, but analysts say the meeting could push members to do more.
“It is hoped there will be a clearer implementation plan on what will ASEAN do going forward,” Lina Alexandra of Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told AFP. As the meeting opened, Human Rights Watch in a press release urged ASEAN members and allies to “create a coalition of concerned governments to… press the junta” more strongly on its rights abuses.
Tomorrow, an ASEAN-plus-three ministerial meeting with Japan, South Korea and China will take place ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum and an 18-nation East Asia Summit foreign ministers’ meeting on Friday, which will also include Washington and Beijing.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to attend the latter meeting, again putting him in the same room as United States Secretary of State Blinken.
China will be represented by top diplomat Wang Yi instead of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, a Southeast Asia diplomat told AFP.
Meanwhile, North Korea – which will participate in the ASEAN Regional Forum – has decided against sending Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, Indonesian officials said.