JakartaPost-Sept 15, 2022
Myanmar will not participate in the upcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting with the United Nations secretary-general and the president of the 77th UN General Assembly (AUMM), Indonesia says. “Myanmar will not be represented. There will not be any participation by Myanmar at the upcoming [AUMM] meeting,” Penny Dewi Herasati, the Foreign Ministry director for socio-culture and international organizations of developing countries, told reporters on Monday. Since the military coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership in February last year, dialogue between Naypyidaw and other international actors has been on a consistent decline, a trend that only worsened following its execution of four democracy activists in late July. The Five-Point Consensus is an ASEAN peace initiative concurred upon by all the bloc’s leaders, including the junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing last year in Jakarta. Despite initially agreeing to the consensus, Min Aung Hlaing backpedaled a mere two days later. The execution of the activists, meanwhile, prompted global outrage, including ASEAN, which declared the act to be “highly reprehensible”. Following the executions, which have been regarded as open defiance of the Five-Point Consensus, the Myanmar government has taken on what analysts describe as “pariah status” in the regional bloc. Lina Alexandra, a senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told The Jakarta Post that while the Foreign Ministry has firmly stated Myanmar’s exclusion from the AUMM, a full consensus among the rest of ASEAN will be needed to confirm the embargo on Naypyidaw. But Penny’s statement was indicative of Indonesia’s stance as next year’s ASEAN chair. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/09/14/ri-insists-myanmar-will-not-attend-new-york-meeting.html.
