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Myanmar’s junta chief will be excluded from an upcoming ASEAN summit, the group said Saturday, a rare rebuke as concerns rise over the military government’s commitment to defusing a bloody crisis.
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed at an emergency meeting late Friday that a “non-political representative” for Myanmar would be invited to the October 26-28 summit, current ASEAN chair Brunei said in a statement.
The decision effectively excluded junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
The Myanmar junta slammed the decision on Saturday evening, accusing ASEAN of breaching the bloc’s policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of its member states.
“We can also see the interference from the other (non-ASEAN) countries,” junta spokesman brigadier general Zaw Min Tun told the BBC Burmese section.
He seized on talks between the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and ASEAN special envoy, Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, ahead of the meeting and also singled out EU pressure.
This is a real breakthrough for ASEAN, and for anti-junta forces. It restores credibility to ASEAN diplomacy, and deprives the SAC of an opportunity to portray itself as a legitimate government—portrayals which it had been using to discourage further resistance inside Myanmar. https://t.co/vlSom2luGh
— Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) October 16, 2021
The bloc, widely criticised as a toothless organisation, took a strong stand after the junta rebuffed requests that a special envoy meet with “with all stakeholders” in Myanmar — a phrase seen to include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The statement noted…
Source : france24
