Southeast Asia’s top envoys agreed Thursday to hold Myanmar to a “concrete” but unidentified timeline for making progress on a plan to end violence in the troubled country.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed recommendations for the full implementation of the so-called five-point consensus reached with the junta after the military coup last year, during a meeting in Jakarta. A statement issued by Cambodia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the bloc, said further steps will be decided upon during next month’s Asean summit in Phnom Penh that is expected to draw world leaders to the region.
“Undoubtedly, the situation on the ground remains critical and fragile, and this is not due to the lack of commitments and efforts on the part of Asean and the Special Envoy, but because of the complexity and difficulty of Myanmar’s decades-long protracted conflicts,” the statement reads.
Asean, which Myanmar is a member of, has come under pressure to convince the junta to end violence and instability since coup leader Min Aung Hlaing seized control from the civilian government last year. A non-political representative from Myanmar was invited to the Thursday meeting, but “was met with no positive response,” the statement reads.
In April last year, Myanmar agreed to the plan meant to stop conflict with civilians, though Asean foreign ministers have since lamented the limited progress in its implementation.
While Myanmar’s junta has been excluded from some Asean leadership events since the coup, the grouping has until now refrained from taking more drastic action even as the US imposed rounds of sanctions targeting the coup leaders and related business entities. With assistance from Norman Harsono/Bloomberg