Thailand has offered to host informal talks in December of ASEAN member states trying to find a way of resolving the Myanmar crisis, which was sparked by a military coup in 2021 and has killed thousands and forced millions from their homes.
At the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting this week, Thai chief diplomat Maris Sangiampongsa said Thailand is ready to host an extended informal consultation on the situation in Myanmar, following consultation with current ASEAN chair Laos.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankur also announced the offer in an online press briefing on the first day of the ongoing ASEAN Summit and attendant meetings in Vientiane.
He said the proposal is backed by both Laos, the outgoing chair, and Malaysia, the incoming chair, and therefore likely to come to fruition.
ASEAN leaders agreed at the summit that Myanmar remains a primary concern and that all member states wish to see peace restored in the country, Nikorndej added.
ASEAN leaders also urged “all stakeholders and parties in Myanmar, in particular the armed forces and security forces concerned, to de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians and public facilities”, according to a statement earlier this week.
The permanent secretary to the junta’s Foreign Ministry, Aung Kyaw Moe, is attending the summit—the first time the regime has sent a non-political representative to the summit, from which its leaders have been barred since the coup.
Maris wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday that hosting the informal talks is part of Thailand’s proactive and constructive diplomatic approach to help resolve the current conflict.
“This informal consultation will be a good opportunity for participants to speak openly and to find ways together to support the effective implementation of ASEAN’s five-point consensus,” he wrote. “Thailand believes that all ASEAN member states have goodwill toward Myanmar and want to see a peaceful solution through dialogue so that peace can return to Myanmar as soon as possible.”
Thailand also arranged informal meetings with some ASEAN members to discuss Myanmar in 2022 and 2023.
In June 2023, following a visit to the country and meeting with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, former Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai also hosted an informal ministerial meeting with some regional countries in an attempt “to fully re-engage” with the Myanmar junta’s generals.
But the meeting was shunned by then-ASEAN chair Indonesia as well as members Singapore and Malaysia.
On Thursday, Southeast Asian leaders dismissed the Myanmar junta’s plan to end the country’s civil war as “substantially inadequate”, according to a draft summit statement quoted by AFP.
The junta agreed on the five-point plan with ASEAN weeks after seizing power in February 2021 but then pushed ahead with a bloody crackdown on dissent. ASEAN has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
