Indonesia FM slams Myanmar junta shunning peace plan

VIENTIANE: Indonesia’s foreign minister on Thursday slammed the Myanmar junta’s unwillingness to engage with a regional peace plan to resolve the crisis sparked by its 2021 coup.

Retno Marsudi made the remarks after meeting her Singaporean counterpart on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting in Laos capital Vientiane.

Weeks after it seized power, the junta agreed to a five-point peace plan with ASEAN that it has since ignored as it wages a crackdown on dissent and battles armed opposition to its rule.

“We shared the same view on the lack of commitment of Myanmar military junta to implement the 5PC (five point consensus),” Marsudi wrote on her X account.

Both Singapore and Indonesia have been critical of the junta’s power grab, which has divided the 10-member ASEAN bloc.

ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, has led diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis but has made little progress.

The junta has been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings.

Previously it had refused to send “non-political representatives” to attend but two senior bureaucrats are representing Myanmar at the talks in Vientiane.

The military’s readiness to re-engage diplomatically was a sign of its “weakened position”, a Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Myanmar’s generals have yet to make any meaningful counterattack following an offensive by ethnic armed groups in October that seized swaths of territory along the border with China.

The losses triggered rare public criticism of its top leadership.

Foreign ministers were struggling to agree on a common position on Myanmar for the meeting’s communique, a diplomatic source told AFP.

“Myanmar is not resolved yet but we’re almost there,” the source said, requesting anonymity to talk to the media.

A draft ASEAN communique seen by AFP said ministers “strongly condemned” the continued violence.

The crisis has divided the bloc, with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines calling for tougher action against the junta.

Thailand has held its own bilateral talks with the generals as well as detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.