Myanmar’s military regime will be restricted to a non-political role when Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meet for five days of talks this week, according to the US State Department.
The 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting and related meetings will be held in the Laos capital of Vientiane from Wednesday to Sunday, with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken joining the talks on Friday and Saturday.
Laos is this year’s ASEAN chairholder.
Daniel J. Kritenbrink, US assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told Monday’s press briefing that the US was eager to address economic cooperation, climate change, and the Myanmar crisis at the ASEAN talks.
Kritenbrink also confirmed US support for ASEAN’s downgrading of Myanmar’s junta to a non-political role at this and other regional summits.
“My understanding is there will be a representative from Burma [Myanmar]. It will be at the permanent secretary non-political level,” he said.
Junta leaders have been barred from ASEAN summits since late 2021 as punishment for failing to honor the bloc’s five-point peace plan to curb violence sparked by the coup in 2021.
Myanmar was plunged into chaos following the Army’s bloody crackdowns on nationwide peaceful demonstrations against the military takeover.
The junta’s crackdowns also fueled widespread armed resistance, leaving it unable to control large parts of the country more than three years after the coup. The regime has retaliated with indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, as well as arbitrary arrest and killing of civilians.
ASEAN has responded to the violence by barring the junta’s political representatives from its high-level meetings, drawing condemnation from the military regime.
However, the regime sent a senior Foreign Ministry bureaucrat to the ASEAN foreign ministers’ retreat in Luang Prabang, Laos, in January this year. This week’s ASEAN meetings mark the second time the regime will participate at a non-political level.
“There is certainly precedent for having done so. This has been our position all along, and we are – we are supportive of ASEAN having made this arrangement, again, to ensure that any Burmese representation is at a non-political level,” Kritenbrink said.
The US has imposed a series of sanctions and other measures designed to pressure the regime and cut off funding to continue its atrocities in the country.
However, the regime continues to bomb and shell civilian populations in the west, northeast, north and southeast of the country, where offensives led by ethnic armed groups have gained momentum since late last year.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the junta has killed over 5,400 civilians since the coup.
