Opposing sides in Myanmar conflict open to dialogue, Thai foreign minister says

ASEAN’s special envoy on Myanmar has held separate talks with the country’s regime-backed negotiators and some ethnic armed groups, with all sides ​recognising there is no military solution to the civil war, ‌Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

Thailand is ready to serve as a facilitator and provide a venue for future peace talks, he said, marking a significant ​step toward reviving ASEAN’s stalled peace initiative for Myanmar, where an estimated ​100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since ⁠a 2021 coup.

Here is more detail about the meetings, provided by ​Sihasak in a press briefing on Wednesday:

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ​ministers on Sunday held the first in-person talks with their Myanmar counterpart since the coup that deposed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and sparked the ​civil war.

• A day later, ASEAN’s special envoy Maria Theresa Lazaro, the ​foreign minister of the Philippines, and Sihasak met six ethnic armed groups, including the Karen National ‌Union ⁠and the Karenni National Progressive Party.

• The groups were open to dialogue but are yet to reach a common position, which they are currently working on, Sihasak said.

• Lazaro and Thai officials also met the Myanmar regime’s National ​Solidarity and Peacemaking ​Negotiation Committee.

• All sides ⁠recognised that a military solution was not in their interests, he said.

• “We hope that eventually we could ​find some common ground where we can begin some ​talks,” Sihasak ⁠said. “At the moment it is going to be probably talks for talks: How to conduct the talks, where to conduct the talks.”

• Thailand and ASEAN ⁠hope ​to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, who ​has been detained since the coup, face to face.

• Thailand has not abandoned ASEAN’s peace plan ​for Myanmar, known as the “Five-Point Consensus”.

REUTERS