ASEAN leaders will review Myanmar’s exclusion from high-level meetings at a Manila summit, while the bloc’s envoy says Thailand’s call for ministerial access remains unresolved.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is set to review the exclusion decision at its leaders’ summit, Reuters reported. The question is whether Myanmar’s military-backed leadership will continue to be barred from the bloc’s senior gatherings.
Ma. Theresa Lazaro, the Philippines’ foreign affairs secretary and ASEAN’s special envoy for Myanmar, said Saturday that negotiations were continuing over a proposed review of the Five-Point Consensus. Leaders would hear several possible approaches, she said.
Lazaro said ASEAN had not softened its policy toward Myanmar. “There is still the Five-Point Consensus,” she said at a press conference.
Thailand’s call for Myanmar’s foreign minister to join meetings of ASEAN foreign ministers remains under discussion, Lazaro said. She said ASEAN had not agreed to let the official represent Myanmar in those ministerial sessions.
Reuters reported growing calls for ASEAN to end a five-year restriction that has kept Myanmar’s military-backed leadership out of senior-level meetings. Some ASEAN members, including Thailand, have increased engagement with Myanmar even as fighting there continues, the report said.
ASEAN adopted the Five-Point Consensus after Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. The framework calls on the parties to halt violence and begin talks, and provides for ASEAN mediation and humanitarian aid.
Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow has also called for a clearer implementation strategy, a position EconoTimes covered in its report on Thailand’s push for a more defined plan.
ASEAN leaders are scheduled to take up Myanmar’s exclusion in Manila from Nov. 15 to 17.
