ASEAN Meeting With Myanmar Regime’s FM Draws Int’l Condemnation

Opposition forces and observers have reacted with dismay to an informal meeting in Bangkok on Sunday of ASEAN foreign ministers with their regime-appointed counterpart from Myanmar.

The chief diplomats reiterated that the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus must be implemented if Myanmar’s crisis is to be resolved, but a defiant Tin Maung Swe rejected the bloc’s peace plan, which he said was “inconsistent with ASEAN’s principles” and “does not reflect the current political realities in Myanmar.”

The minister claimed to represent a “democratically elected” government that “looks forward to restoring its full and equal participation in ASEAN,” according to a statement from his ministry, and pledged to cooperate with the bloc—with the caveat “to the possible extent.”

Justice for Myanmar (JFM)

“More than five years after adopting the Five-Point Consensus, ASEAN is undermining its own commitments and cementing its complicity in the Myanmar junta’s ongoing international crimes,” the activist group said Wednesday.

It added that the Myanmar military regime are “criminals” who should be held accountable for their international crimes, not rewarded by a seat alongside ASEAN foreign ministers.

It said the meeting “will only embolden the junta to continue to commit its international crimes with total impunity.”

It pointed out that coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing “has shown total contempt” for the bloc’s peace plan, intensifying attacks against the people of Myanmar “with the complicity of companies in ASEAN member states.”

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)

The regional lawmakers’ association on Wednesday warned that the bloc’s shift toward calibrated re-engagement risks normalizing dictatorship without securing any tangible results for the people of the country.

“ASEAN cannot call this progress,” said APHR Chairwoman Mercy Chriesty Barends in the statement released Wednesday. “What we are witnessing is the normalization of a dictatorship, dressed up as diplomatic language. Five year of impunity have not been met with accountability. Instead, they have been given a seat at the table.”

The group urged ASEAN to ensure such engagement “does not come at the cost of the accountability and justice Myanmar’s people have been demanding since the 2021 military coup.”

It added that any re-engagement with the regime “must be measured against the key commitments under ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus.”

National Unity Government (NUG)

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, the shadow government’s Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung warned that the bloc’s re-engagement with the regime runs the risk of legitimizing the military regime.

“I acknowledge the fact that ASEAN needs to change its approach to enforce the consensus, but any new strategy must not confer recognition on the junta,” she said. “Without an enforcement mechanism and time-bound measures, pressure will not be effective.”

Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN)

The largest ethnic Karen network consisting of 22 organizations based in Thailand and Myanmar on Wednesday pointed out that rather than de-escalating, the regime has intensified its attacks on civilian targets in Karen State immediately following ASEAN’s engagement.

This demonstrates, the group said, that the regime “has no intention of implementing the first and most fundamental element of the Five-Point Consensus.”

It added that ASEAN “should judge the regime not by its statement, but by its actions,” and added, “Diplomatic engagement should not become a reward for continued war crimes against civilians.”

“If ASEAN is serious about peace, it must put pressure where it belongs”—on the Myanmar military, it added.

Saifuddin Abdullah, former Malaysian foreign minister

Former Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah warned ahead of the meeting that allowing Tin Maung Swe to attend the Bangkok gathering risked normalizing the military regime.

“The junta have ignored ASEAN’s calls for dialogue, intensified violence against civilians, and even formally rejected the Five-Point Consensus. If the junta rejects ASEAN’s minimum proposal, why is ASEAN rewarding that behavior with higher levels of engagement?” he said.

Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M)

A rights group formed by former UN human rights experts, SAC-M said a day before the meeting that it would “undermine ASEAN’s own Five-Point Consensus and reward the junta’s bloodshed and recalcitrance.”

The meeting “will embolden the junta even more to commit atrocities while gifting it the legitimacy it needs to survive,” the group said.

“By so totally compromising itself, ASEAN stands on the precipice of irrelevance,” SAC-M member Yanghee Lee added.

By going ahead with the meeting, the bloc “is casting a vote of no-confidence in its own ability to handle the situation in Myanmar and it is also burning any remaining goodwill with legitimate actors, including the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, NUG and ethnic organizations, minority communities and Myanmar civil society,” SAC-M warned.

“By so completely abandoning its expressed commitment to supporting the will and aspiration of the Myanmar people, ASEAN would send a clear message to the international community: we have failed, over to you.”