Singapore PM says Asean should keep excluding Myanmar junta from meetings
- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tells Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen there needs to be significant progress including end to violence
- Hun Sen visited Myanmar this month in trip criticised for potentially legitimising military regime, which seized power in 2021 coup
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Asean should continue to exclude Myanmar’s junta leaders from meetings until headway is made on an agreement which includes a cessation of violence in the country.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations should keep to its decision made at the bloc’s summit last year of inviting only a non-political representative from Myanmar to meetings until “significant progress” is made in implementing a five-point consensus between the grouping and Naypyidaw, Lee said during a call with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday.
With Cambodia now the rotating chair of Asean, Hun Sen last week became the first foreign leader to visit Myanmar since the junta seized power in a coup nearly a year ago.
His two-day trip drew widespread criticism that it would legitimise the rule of the regime, which has been engaged in intensifying battles with armed groups.
Hun Sen has reversed the stance of the previous chair Brunei, which led efforts within the 10-nation bloc to deny coup leader Min Aung Hlaing from taking part in a virtual big ticket summit last year, saying the Myanmar regime has the right to attend Asean meetings.
Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, remains in open conflict with several armed groups including upstart forces led by allies of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Any discussion to revise the Asean leaders’ decision had to be based on new facts,” according to the statement from Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.