ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Myanmar’s Readmission to ASEAN Summits Still ‘Far Off,’ Special Envoy Says

Ma. Theresa Lazaro said that the bloc wants to see more progress on the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus for resolving the country’s conflict.

The return of Myanmar’s leaders to top meetings of the Association of Southeast ​Asian Nations (ASEAN) remains “far off,” the bloc’s special envoy said yesterday, despite the efforts of the country’s new military-backed civilian government to gain readmission.

Speaking at a press conference after an ASEAN meeting in Manila, Reuters reported, Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said that Myanmar’s compliance with ASEAN’s ​Five-Point Consensus plan for resolving the conflict was still ​being assessed.

“It’s still far off,” said ​Lazaro, who is serving as ASEAN’s special envoy on Myanmar this year, while the Philippines holds the bloc’s rotating chairmanship. “There ​have been a lot of questions on their compliance.”

She added that ASEAN plans to come up with benchmarks to measure progress on the implementation of the Consensus, and that “failure to meet those would constitute non-compliance,” Reuters paraphrased her as saying.

“It’s still the Five-Point Consensus that is still being the foundational document that we are looking at during the discussions with the foreign minister of Myanmar,” Lazaro added.

The Five-Point Consensus was formulated by ASEAN in April 2021, two months after the coup that threw the country into political and economic turmoil. As well as recommending the appointment of a special envoy, it called for an immediate cessation of violence, access to humanitarian aid, and inclusive dialogue involving “all parties” to Myanmar’s conflict.

Despite agreeing to the Consensus, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has since done little to implement its most important points, instead choosing to defeat by force the groups opposing military rule, which his regime has characterized as “terrorists.” This lack of compliance led ASEAN to bar the military’s representatives from its summits in late 2021.

Since being anointed president in April, Min Aung Hlaing has pushed hard to normalize Myanmar’s relations with ASEAN – but has shown........

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