Asia & Pacific
Questions have begun to mount over a shift in ASEAN’s approach toward closer engagement with Myanmar’s military government nearly five years after the coup, with critics expressing concern that the bloc risks emboldening the junta despite its repeated failure to comply with the group’s peace roadmap.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow and Myanmar's Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe attend an informal meeting on July 12 with ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Bangkok. (Reuters/Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Questions have begun to mount over a shift in ASEAN’s approach toward closer engagement with Myanmar’s military government over five years after the coup, with critics expressing concern that the bloc risks emboldening the junta despite its repeated failure to comply with the group’s peace roadmap.The concerns came following two back-to-back regional meetings held in Thailand over the past week to discuss ASEAN’s way forward with Naypyidaw, during which the bloc’s members met with various Myanmar representatives while increasingly signaling an openness to normalize ties with its military government.
“ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights warns that ASEAN’s shift toward ‘calibrated engagement’ with Myanmar’s military-appointed risks normalizing a dictatorship without securing any tangible results for the Myanmar people,” said APHR, a regional advocacy group whose members are sitting and former legislators, in a statement on Wednesday.
