Myanmar democratic political stakeholders call for balanced high-level ASEAN engagement consistent with the 5-Point Consensus

Mizzima

Twenty political and ethnic minority groups in Myanmar including the National Unity Government (NUG) have released a statement expressing concern about ASEAN meeting with the foreign minister of a country that was rejecting its peace initiative, and ‌said the bloc was not engaging sufficiently ⁠with other stakeholders.

Here is the text of the statement released on 12 July:

Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders express deep concern over the decision to convene an Informal Meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers with the representative of Myanmar’s military authorities without balanced high-level engagement with Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders.

ASEAN’s engagement on Myanmar must remain balanced, inclusive, and consistent with both the letter and spirit of the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus (5PC). Maintaining such balance is essential to preserving ASEAN’s credibility and advancing a comprehensive, inclusive, and sustainable political solution.

Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders therefore emphasise the following: Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders have consistently engaged ASEAN in good faith. Over successive ASEAN Chairmanships, Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders have consistently engaged ASEAN initiatives in good faith and have repeatedly demonstrated their readiness to advance an inclusive political process.

Through the ASEAN Stakeholder Engagement Meetings (SEM) and other ASEAN-convened meetings, democratic political stakeholders have built common political positions on key elements of the Five-Point Consensus, including the cessation of violence, inclusive political dialogue, humanitarian access, humanitarian coordination, civilian protection, and the conditions necessary for a comprehensive political process.

These engagements reflect our continued commitment to working constructively with ASEAN to advance a peaceful and sustainable political solution. The military authorities have rejected ASEAN’s own political framework. Since the adoption of the Five-Point Consensus, the military authorities have consistently ignored its commitments while continuing military offensives, attacks against civilians, and restrictions on humanitarian access.

On 9 July 2026, the military-controlled parliament formally adopted a motion rejecting the Five-Point Consensus itself. This is not merely a failure to implement the Five-Point Consensus. It is an explicit rejection of ASEAN’s agreed political framework by the very party now being elevated through high-level engagement.

It is therefore difficult to reconcile the expansion of high-level engagement with a party that has openly repudiated ASEAN’s own framework while reducing engagement with democratic political stakeholders who have consistently engaged ASEAN in good faith to advance its implementation.

Balanced high-level engagement is indispensable to a credible political process. A comprehensive political settlement cannot be achieved through engagement with one party alone. It requires meaningful engagement with all principal democratic political stakeholders, including the National Unity Government (NUG), the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF), the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), Ethnic Resistance Organisations (EROs), Federal Units, Consultative Councils, and other democratic political institutions. Where participation is necessarily limited, representation should be determined through the democratic movement’s own representative and coordination mechanisms, rather than through externally determined or selective engagement.

ASEAN should engage representative democratic political stakeholders through nationally owned coordination mechanisms that strengthen political cohesion rather than inadvertently contributing to fragmentation or division. Myanmar’s democratic political stakeholders remain committed to working constructively with ASEAN towards a peaceful transition to a federal democratic union based on democracy, federalism, equality, shared sovereignty, and the aspirations of all the peoples of Myanmar.