More than two years after the Myanmar coup, the divided 10-member ASEAN bloc's peace efforts remain fruitless, as the Myanmar junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents.
After wrangling over the wording on Myanmar the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta issued a lengthy Joint Communique that only devoted five paragraphs to Myanmar.
The following is the ASEAN stance on the Myanmar crisis:
Developments in Myanmar
142. We discussed the developments in Myanmar and reaffirmed our united position
that the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) remains our main reference to address
the political crisis in Myanmar. We strongly condemned the continued acts of
violence, including air strikes, artillery shelling, and destruction of public
facilities and urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately
halt indiscriminate violence, denounce any escalation, and create a conducive
environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and inclusive national
dialogue.
143. We commended the AHA Centre for its partial delivery of aid to 400 households
of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Hsiseng Township, located in the
Southern Shan State, on July 7, 2023. We appreciated the support of the
relevant stakeholders in ensuring safe delivery. We called on further facilitation
to ensure the humanitarian assistance can safely reach the 1,1 million Internally
Displaced Persons (IDPs) identified in the Joint Need Assessment (JNA)
Report of the AHA Centre. We appreciated the support from all stakeholders in
Myanmar for helping the completion of the JNA by the AHA Centre in an
inclusive manner facilitated by the ASEAN Chair. We called for additional
support from the international community for humanitarian assistance to
implement the JNA Report.
144. We appreciated the Chair’s efforts in intensifying engagement with all relevant
stakeholders in Myanmar to build trust and confidence, create a conducive
environment, and bridge gaps and differences leading toward an inclusive
dialogue for a comprehensive political solution. We supported sustaining such
engagements to push for the implementation of the 5PC in its entirety, in line
with our Leaders ’decision at the 42nd ASEAN Summit. We called for continued
support of the External Partners, including the UN and neighbouring countries
of Myanmar, to work with ASEAN for concrete implementation of the 5PC.
145. In line with paragraph 14 of the ASEAN Leaders ’Review and Decision on the
Implementation of Five-Point Consensus, we were briefed by Thailand on its
recent activities on Myanmar, which a number of ASEAN Member States
viewed as a positive development. We reaffirmed ASEAN unity and reiterated
that any effort should support, in line with 5PC and in coordination with the
Chair of ASEAN.
146. We will conduct our comprehensive review of the 5PC implementation and
submit our recommendation to the 43rd ASEAN Summit.