ASEAN agrees to draft benchmarks for Myanmar peace plan

Mizzima

ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Manila have agreed to develop benchmarks for measuring progress on Myanmar’s Five-Point Consensus and have begun discussing a longer-term special envoy to replace the current annual rotation, Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said.

According to Lazaro, who also serves as the ASEAN chair’s special envoy on Myanmar, the proposals emerged from an extended informal consultation held on 21 July on the sidelines of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. She said senior officials have been tasked with refining the details before submitting them to ASEAN leaders at the November summit.

The Five-Point Consensus was adopted in April 2021 following Myanmar’s military coup.

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ministers reaffirmed the consensus and called for concrete and measurable steps toward its implementation, including a permanent end to violence, the release of all political prisoners, and safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout Myanmar.

Brunei proposed establishing a unit within the ASEAN Secretariat to support the envoy’s work, though funding and operational arrangements remain unresolved, officials said.

Myanmar was represented at the Manila meetings by the permanent secretary of its foreign ministry rather than a political minister, consistent with ASEAN’s exclusion of Myanmar junta leadership from high-level meetings since 2021.