Myanmar leaders' return to ASEAN meetings still far off, envoy says

MANILA — Myanmar leaders’ participation in high-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) remains unlikely for now as the country’s compliance with the bloc’s peace initiative is still being assessed, the Philippines’ foreign minister said Thursday.

Myanmar, which has been gripped by a civil war since the 2021 military coup, has yet to fully comply with ASEAN’s “five-point consensus,” a peace roadmap calling for dialogue, an end to hostilities, and humanitarian access, Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro said during a press conference after an ASEAN meeting.

“It’s still far off,” Lazaro said, adding that there remain “a lot of questions” regarding Myanmar’s compliance with the agreement. She also serves as ASEAN’s special envoy on Myanmar.

Lazaro said she would lead a humanitarian mission to Myanmar later this year but it remains uncertain whether she would be allowed to meet detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was removed from power in the 2021 military takeover.

The ASEAN bloc will establish benchmarks to measure Myanmar’s progress in implementing the peace roadmap, and failure to meet those standards would be considered non-compliance, Lazaro said.

Myanmar’s former military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is now president, agreed to the five-point consensus with ASEAN in April 2021, two months after the coup that plunged the country into political turmoil and armed conflict.

ASEAN later excluded Myanmar’s military leaders from its top-level meetings after they failed to implement the agreement. The bloc has continued to call for dialogue, a halt to violence, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Myanmar’s pro-military parliament recently passed a motion rejecting the five-point consensus, describing it as interference in the country’s internal affairs.

-Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by Martin Petty/Reuters