Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned Myanmar's ruling military junta for continuing to attack those calling for democracy in the country, amid frustration about a peace plan agreement struck over two years ago having made little progress.
In a statement issued following the 10-member group's summit held Tuesday in Jakarta without Myanmar, the leaders "strongly condemned the continued acts of violence in Myanmar" and urged all related parties in the country, and the "Myanmar Armed Forces in particular," to "de-escalate and stop targeted attacks on civilians."
The statement also said that the violence in Myanmar has "adversely impacted regional stability, particularly along the border region," referring to the inflow of refugees from Myanmar to neighboring countries.
The leaders on Tuesday agreed on the Philippines chairing the regional body in 2026 instead of Myanmar after assessing that the junta has made "no significant progress" in implementing the five-point consensus peace plan agreed between Myanmar and the other ASEAN member countries in April 2021.
The agreement was meant to be a path forward to a peaceful solution to the conflict in Myanmar, which began following a February 2021 coup that ousted its democratically elected government.
The leaders also decided to set up a troika made up of the current, previous and next chairs of ASEAN to ensure that efforts will continue to deal with the Myanmar crisis which they believe will unlikely be resolved in a year.
In responding to the ASEAN's condemnation of Myanmar, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement published on a state-run newspaper Wednesday that the country's views were not taken into account, though Indonesia, the group's chair this year, had consulted Myanmar on the draft.
"Therefore...the Ministry rejects the content" of the ASEAN statement, the ministry said, claiming ASEAN's assessment about Myanmar was not objective.
Myanmar calls for other ASEAN member nations to strictly adhere to the group's principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member countries, the ministry added.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Its chairmanship rotates annually based on the alphabetical order of its members' names in English.
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