Malaysia’s top diplomat meets Myanmar anti-junta counterpart on sidelines of US-Asean summit

NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung said she had a productive meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, discussing the dire situation in Myanmar

It marked the first publicly acknowledged time a ministerial-level official from Asean has had face-to-face talks with a National Unity Government counterpart

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US President Joe Biden, centre-right, and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, centre-left, at this weekend’s summit with Asean leaders in Washington. Photo: Bernama/dpa

Published: 12:19pm, 16 May 2022

The foreign minister of Myanmar’s shadow government, which opposes the military council that runs the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation, on Sunday described as “productive” a meeting she had with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

The Saturday meeting in Washington was the first publicly acknowledged occasion when a ministerial-level official from one of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has had face-to-face talks with a counterpart in Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government.

NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung said on Twitter her “productive meeting” with Saifuddin discussed “the dire situation in Myanmar, and how the NUG and Malaysia can work together to restore peace and democracy in Myanmar, including humanitarian assistance and support for the Myanmar refugees.”

Their meeting, described as “informal”, took place on Saturday against the backdrop of the US-Asean Summit on Thursday and Friday. Asean foreign ministers had held their own meeting ahead of the summit.

Myanmar is a member of Asean, but has not been willing to implement the regional grouping’s plan to try to restore peace in the country where the army seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Opposition to army rule is widespread, and some UN experts have characterised the country as now being in a state of civil war.

The military’s failure to go along with the plan, which was proposed last year, led fellow Asean members to block Myanmar’s leaders last October from attending major meetings of the regional grouping. The military government spurned invitations to have a non-political official attend instead.