Asean divided over Myanmar future

PHNOM PENH: Southeast Asian nations held talks in Cambodia on Thursday, amid divisions in the bloc over how to restore stability in Myanmar after a military coup a year ago and with the junta’s representative barred from attending the meeting.

Cambodia is the current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which last year unexpectedly blocked Myanmar’s military government from joining key meetings over a failure to honour a peace plan agreed with the bloc.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had sought to re-engage the junta, but amid friction over the approach, Asean excluded Myanmar’s militaryappointed foreign minister from this week’s meeting, which was postponed from January.

“No doubt we might have different views occasionally on some issues but what family doesn’t have them?” Cambodian foreign minister Prak Sokhonn told reporters in Phnom Penh.

Prak Sokhonn expressed regret that not all the ministers had been able to attend.

Vietnam’s foreign minister, Bui Thanh Son, tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Phnom Penh and would join the meeting online, Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said.

Cambodia’s prime minister on Wednesday defended his decision to visit Myanmar for talks last month and said that, without a breakthrough, peace in the conflict-hit nation may not be achieved even in five to 10 years.

Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia have urged Cambodia not to invite Myanmar’s generals until they deliver on a commitment made last year to end hostilities and allow Asean to facilitate a peace process.

Ahead of the talks, Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan said it was “disappointing” the lack of progress implementing the peace plan, according to a statement from his ministry.