Billions of dollars in reserves in the US Federal Reserve Bank belonging to Myanmar sit awaiting a decision at the United Nations this month as to who to recognize as the legitimate ruler of the country.
In the one corner sits the Military junta which illegally grabbed power from the elected civilian government in a coup on 1 February. In the other corner, sits a recently assembled body, the self-styled National Unity Government (NUG), which essentially stands for Aung San Suu Kyi’s former National League for Democracy-led government.
The NUG, which this week declared a “state of emergency” putting it on a war footing in Myanmar, will be watching anxiously as the UN meets this month in the hope that their representative Kyaw Moe Tun will receive official approval.
On the other hand, Min Aung Hlaing’s military junta will be hoping their candidate, Aung Thurein, a military veteran, will fill the spot.
VOA reports that the committee has four options. Besides recommending the proffered credentials of one candidate or the other, it could defer an explicit decision to back either application, which would leave Kyaw Moe Tun in the post by default but deny the NUG the UN’s stamp of approval, or recommend leaving Myanmar’s seat empty.
The General Assembly usually accepts the committee’s recommendations without a vote, but any member state can force one by raising a challenge, the news agency says.
The UN’s Credentials Committee convenes at the start of every regular General Assembly session to vet the application of each country’s proposed ambassador and passes its recommendations on to the full assembly. The General Assembly choses the committee members anew each year, though in practice China, Russia and the U.S. always serve, VOA reports.
NUG is lobbying for its representative to retain the post, which will help consolidate their position as the legitimate representative of Myanmar, given the junta stole the role in a coup.
It also recognizes that a win opens the doors to billions of dollars in sovereign cash reserves that their country holds overseas. These 1 billion-dollar reserves were frozen shortly after the 1 February coup by US President Joe Biden in an executive order to prevent the junta from accessing them.
The IMF says of January 2021 Myanmar’s international reserves stood at $6.7 billion, VOA reports. The total reserves are reportedly split between the US and Singapore.
If NUG’s Kyaw Moe Tun wins the position, this will consolidate the NUG’s bargaining power with the junta in talks going forward, according to experts.
The NUG’s minister of international cooperation, Sasa, told VOA it had already turned in a formal request asking the UN to reaffirm Kyaw Moe Tun’s credentials as Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN and was vigorously lobbying member states to back his claim to the seat.
At this stage, it is unclear how the NUG’s declaration of a state of emergency and its state of war will affect the decision on Myanmar’s UN representative.
