The newly appointed Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy to Myanmar, Alounkeo Kittikhoun, met junta boss Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw on Wednesday.
The 73-year-old former deputy foreign minister from Laos also met junta foreign minister Than Swe, home affairs minister Yar Pyae and representatives from seven armed organizations which signed the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.
Alounkeo Kittikhoun on Friday is scheduled to meet representatives of 39 political parties that have registered with the regime.
They discussed ASEAN’s five-point consensus from April 2021, which the regime has so far failed to implement, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance to around 2 million displaced people, according to the junta’s media.
The five points included calls for an end to violence, dialogue among all parties and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from ASEAN summits.
The regime leader told the former envoy to the United Nations that he was forced to seize power in February 2021 because of electoral fraud during the November 2020 general election and blamed protesters, many of whom were killed in junta crackdowns, for taking up arms against his regime instead of engaging in dialogue.
Alounkeo Kittikhoun is the fourth ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar since the coup. His predecessors from Brunei, Cambodia and Indonesia have failed to convince the regime to implement the consensus.
The consensus demands that ASEAN’s envoys should be able to meet all parties but previous envoys have been denied access to Myanmar.
Cambodia’s envoy Prak Sokhonn met junta leaders in Naypyitaw but said not even Superman could end Myanmar’s crisis.
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are willing to engage with the regime and their foreign ministers attended a Thai-brokered meeting in Bangkok with the junta’s envoy.
Laos and five other fellow ASEAN members attended the annual ASEAN air chiefs conference in Naypyitaw in September.
In December, Min Aung Hlaing co-hosted the virtual Mekong-Lancang Cooperation leaders’ meeting, attended by the prime ministers of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN’s foreign ministers are scheduled to meet from January 28 to 29 at Luang Prabang in Laos.