Irrawaddy-June 24
As Myanmar slips further into its post-coup crisis, the junta is desperately turning an informal discussion on Myanmar hosted by Thailand into an opportunity for propaganda by blatantly lying about every issue it has been struggling with. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai last week invited foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the foreign minister of Myanmar’s junta, to prepare the way to “fully reengage Myanmar at the leaders’ level”. The Myanmar regime’s top leaders and its foreign minister have been excluded from high-level meetings of ASEAN since late 2021, following the junta’s failure to honor the bloc’s plan to restore peace in the country, which has been in turmoil since the military staged a coup earlier that year. Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia shunned the talks held in the resort of Pattaya from June 18-19. Representatives from other ASEAN members including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar neighbors China and India joined the talks. The current ASEAN chair, Indonesia, criticized the Thai government for organizing the talks, which were also condemned by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government and hundreds of the country’s civil society organizations.mJunta foreign minister Than Swe made full use of his first opportunity to speak at the regional meeting, saying correct information about Myanmar had been blocked, and only false and lopsided news about the country was spread by biased media, according to a statement by the regime’s foreign ministry. Than Swe, who served as Myanmar Ambassador to the United States under U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, said at the talks that Myanmar military is focusing its efforts on three of ASEAN’s five-point consensus: ending violence in the country, starting dialogue among all parties, and delivering humanitarian assistance to Myanmar people. Read more at:
