Myanmar’s empty seat during the 40th ASEAN Summit (Plenary Session) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 11, 2022. Credit: ASEAN Secretariat/Kusuma Pandu Wijaya Advertisement Yesterday, Thai PBS published a report stating that military-ruled Myanmar will give up its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2026, due to the intensifying conflict within the country. … Read more
ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia President Marcos Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim say that Southeast Asian governments should be allowed to engage the junta informally. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (left) and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim holds talks in Putrajaya, Malaysia, July 26, 2023. Credit: Twitter/Anwar Ibrahim Advertisement Southeast Asian governments should be … Read more
Advertisement There is so much to dislike in Bilahari Kausikan’s latest splotch of wisdom in Nikkei Asia (“ASEAN needs to get back its old hardheaded realism,” July 7) that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Is it him calling Timor-Leste a “failing state”? Is it his insinuation that Myanmar’s generals should not have been … Read more
Advertisement Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said yesterday that he held a secret meeting with Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first high-ranking foreign official to do so since she was imprisoned by the military in February 2021. According to various media reports, Don briefed his Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) … Read more
Advertisement Indonesia’s top diplomat warned Tuesday of the threat posed by nuclear weapons, saying that Southeast Asia is “one miscalculation away from apocalypse” and pressing for world powers to sign a treaty to keep the region free from such arms. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi raised the alarm ahead of a two-day summit of the … Read more
Advertisement Human rights groups and civil society organizations have criticized a plan by Thailand’s caretaker government to convene another “informal” meeting on the crisis in Myanmar, arguing that it will undermine efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to broker a solution to the country’s conflict. On Saturday, Reuters published a report revealing … Read more
Advertisement Two years after the military coup, the conflict in Myanmar continues to intensify and the international community appears powerless to affect meaningful change. Global institutions, regional organizations, and neighboring countries continue to look for a “political solution” to Myanmar’s crisis, with calls for “peaceful” dialogue ad nauseam. And therein lies the problem: this elusive … Read more
Advertisement Recent events in Myanmar over the past month, from an attack on an ASEAN convoy to a deadly cyclone, have once again highlighted the Southeast Asian bloc’s growing challenge in grappling with the realities of the post-coup situation, which has already killed thousands, displaced millions, and inflicted untold suffering on the people of the … Read more
Advertisement “We should carve Myanmar out for now.” Anwar Ibrahim made the eye-brow-raising comment at an ASEAN-themed event in Bangkok earlier this year. Malaysia’s prime minister said that Myanmar’s domestic turmoil was no longer an “internal matter” and that the conflict had spilled into neighboring countries. He reminded the audience that Malaysia alone had 200,000 refugees, … Read more
Advertisement On the morning of April 11, the first day of Myanmar’s New Year celebrations, the Myanmar air force dropped over 1,500 kilograms of ordnance designed to devastate and incinerate the small peaceful village of Pazigyi in Kanbalu township, Sagaing Region. The attacks targeted a New Year celebration packed with women and young children. Footage … Read more