Mizzima-July 19
Concern has been voiced in a statement issued 18 July over the Philippines’ handling of the ASEAN Chair and its “poor judgement” in handling the sensitive issue of the Myanmar crisis. This statement is issued by Dato’ Sri Saifuddin Abdullah, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia and current member of the House of Representatives of Malaysia; Khun Kasit Piromya, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand; and three former UN experts on Myanmar who are founding members of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M). The Philippines’ term as ASEAN Chair is in a tailspin as Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro brings a disastrous combination of timidity and poor judgment to her role as Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair on Myanmar. Special Envoy Lazaro rewarded the Myanmar military junta’s bloodshed and recalcitrance by agreeing to convene an informal meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers with the junta’s “foreign minister”, hosted on 12 July in junta-friendly Thailand. In a baffling move by the Philippines’ most senior diplomat, Lazaro agreed to the meeting without extracting a single concession from junta leader and accused war criminal Min Aung Hlaing. Five years after the high watermark of the Five Point Consensus (5PC), ASEAN appears adamant on adding humiliation of its own making to the junta’s open contempt for the bloc’s ham-fisted efforts at brokering an end to Myanmar’s military-triggered crises. The Bangkok meeting ended ASEAN’s ban on high-level engagement with senior junta officials, a measure in place since 2021 after Min Aung Hlaing reneged on the 5PC before the ink was even dry. Malaysia, which worked hard to build bridges with legitimate Myanmar stakeholders during its term as ASEAN Chair last year, had the awareness to send a lower ranked official to the meeting. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan – conscious of the catastrophe his country will inherit next year as ASEAN Chair – pressed the “central importance” of the 5PC and the need for “demonstrable progress” by the junta. The world is watching ASEAN’s implosion on Myanmar with growing alarm. Just last week, the UN Human Rights Council in its new resolution on the situation of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar expressed deep concern at the military junta’s lack of progress in implementing the 5PC.
Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/07/19/36514
