Myanmar coup: Singapore’s foreign minister says ‘widespread’ sanctions won’t work

Vivian Balakrishnan says generalised sanctions would only hurt Myanmar’s citizens rather than the junta

He urges junta leader Aung Min Hlaing and Aung San Suu Kyi to sit for talks and says Asean can play a ‘constructive’ role in country’s return to civilian rule

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Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, right, said he hoped Myanmar President Win Myint and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released from detention. Photo: AP

Published: 4:30pm, 16 Feb 2021Updated: 6:25pm, 16 Feb 2021

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Tuesday that the international community should rule out “widespread” sanctions against Myanmar following the military coup there, arguing that such punitive measures would hurt ordinary citizens the most.

Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Balakrishnan said he underscored his message in recent phone calls with counterparts from the United States, Germany and other nations.

Balakrishnan’s remarks came amid intensive behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to bring the coup’s leader, Senior General Aung Min Hlaing, to the negotiation table and avert a violent crackdown against protesting citizens.

Singapore and other Asean countries have also urged the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, to release the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other members of the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD).

“In all my discussions, my phone calls, I’ve said that we should not embark on widespread, generalised, indiscriminate sanctions because the people who will suffer the most will be the ordinary people in Myanmar,” Balakrishnan said in response to questions from lawmakers.

That sentiment was largely in line with opinions expressed by other officials and commentators within Asean countries.

Some in the broader international community, however, say broader sanctions would be effective. US President Joe Biden’s administration has so far imposed targeted sanctions on 10 current and retired top-ranking Tatmadaw leaders, adding to sanctions already imposed on Aung Min Hlaing and others for their alleged role in the 2016 mass killings of Rohingya Muslims.

Last week, New Zealand announced the suspension of high-level military and political contacts with Myanmar, imposed a travel ban on the country’s military leaders, and pledged to ensure that its aid disbursements would not be for projects that benefited the junta.