Myanmar’s gradual return from the diplomatic deep freeze continued over the weekend as Southeast Asian foreign ministers met their counterpart from the junta-run nation in Bangkok, a re-engagement that analysts warn lends legitimacy to a government still at war with its own people, without any commitment to end the violence.Thousands have been killed in the nationwide civil conflict resulting from the military’s 2021 coup, a power grab that prompted Asean to take the unprecedented step of barring the junta’s representatives from regional summits after it ignored a five-point peace plan.Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has since traded his fatigues for civilian dress, becoming president following an election widely decried as a sham as it offered no genuine challenge to the army’s proxy parties.Even so, years after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations froze Myanmar out, the election appears to have opened a pathway back into a bloc that, by convention, is loath to interfere in members’ domestic affairs.Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow (right) meets his Myanmar counterpart U Tin Maung Swe on Saturday, a day before an informal meeting with Asean foreign ministers in Bangkok. Photo: Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs/AFPOn Sunday, Myanmar’s foreign minister Tin Maung Swe met several of Southeast Asia’s senior diplomats in Bangkok to discuss a renewed peace initiative and the welfare of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.