Myanmar complains over pariah treatment in ASEAN
YANGON, MYANMAR—Myanmar claimed on Monday that “discriminatory measures” are shutting it out of the Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) bloc after a summit last week saw the organization continue to blacklist the country’s post coup leadership.
The 11-country Asean has shunned Myanmar from summits since the military in 2021 deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and detained the democratic figurehead, triggering a civil war.
After five years of martial rule, the junta staged a tightly restricted election excluding Suu Kyi’s party that last month resulted in putsch-leading military chief Min Aung Hlaing taking over as civilian president.
At an Asean summit in the Philippines last week, the hosting country’s President Ferdinand Marcos complained there had not been “any progress in Myanmar.”
Myanmar’s foreign ministry, in a statement, claimed that on the contrary, “positive developments taking place in Myanmar have been well recognized by the majority of Asean.
‘Discriminatory measures’
“However, it is observed that a few Member States continue to maintain restrictions, discriminatory measures, and the exclusion of the Myanmar Government from equal representation.”
Asean is suffering from a fraying consensus over Myanmar, analysts say, with frustration growing over a lack of progress on the bloc’s peace plan to end the nation’s civil war.
Some countries, such as neighboring Thailand, congratulated Myanmar’s coup-leader turned-president Min Aung Hlaing when he was sworn in, pledging to make efforts to stabilize their shared border.
