“But if we talk about whether this is in the context of ASEAN, there are rules of the game, there is the five-point consensus, there are summit decisions, that’s what we have to pay attention to.” “If one country takes an initiative, that’s fine, that’s their right,” Ngurah said at a press conference. Participants found the meeting useful and wanted Thailand to hold it again, he added.īut Ngurah Swajaya, the Indonesian foreign ministry’s special advisor for regional diplomacy, on Monday evening reiterated Jakarta’s commitment to dealing with the crisis through formal ASEAN mechanisms. Cross-border crime primarily affected Thai citizens and businesses, he noted. “Our ASEAN friends live far away and don’t have a connected border, so they are following their theory and they don’t see daily problems,” Thai foreign minister Don said. Still, Thailand said on Tuesday it hosted the talks to complement ASEAN efforts and to protect its 2,400-kilometer (1,491-mile) border with the conflict-wracked country. The United Nations and human rights groups say the Myanmar junta’s security forces have killed thousands of civilians and the post-coup strife has displaced an estimated 1.5 million people. In October 2021, ASEAN as a bloc decided to exclude any representative from the Myanmar junta from its meetings after the military regime reneged on a five-point consensus for peace it had agreed to at an emergency summit of Southeast Asian leaders in April 2021. Jakarta has also quietly engaged with the Burmese parallel civilian government and military administration, as well as China, India and Thailand, to solve Myanmar’s post-coup strife, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi revealed in May. It has set up a special envoy’s office on Myanmar to deal with a crisis that erupted in that country after the military ousted an elected government on Feb. Indonesia this year holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN. “Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have taken a clear stance in opposition to the Thai approach,” he said. Thailand’s approach was also at odds with Indonesia’s “quiet and more inclusive” diplomacy, Marston said. The meeting “risk a dangerous diversion of diplomatic resources and attention away from the office of the special envoy in Jakarta,” he added. “ is actively undermining ASEAN centrality by forcing extremely uncomfortable choices on member countries who would rather not be exposed to such scrutiny for willingness to engage the junta,” Marston told BenarNews about Thailand’s efforts to engage with Myanmar’s military regime. Marston, a researcher on Asian affairs at the Australian National University. Those officials who attended it included a mix of foreign ministers, envoys and representatives.Ĭambodia and the Philippines, though, “signaled their discomfort” by not sending their top diplomats, according to Hunter S. Thailand and Myanmar, along with five other ASEAN countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines – as well as India and China, attended the meeting in Pattaya on Monday, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said in a statement afterwards. Key member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that have criticized the Burmese junta – Malaysia, Singapore and current ASEAN chair Indonesia – snubbed the gathering, which Bangkok defended on Tuesday by saying it was held in Thailand’s best interests. Thailand’s decision to hold talks with Myanmar’s military has again tested the unity of Southeast Asia’s main regional bloc, analysts said, questioning why the Thai government called the meeting especially after being trounced in last month’s election.
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