Asean ministers to meet Myanmar counterpart this weekend

HANOI: Foreign Ministers of the Southeast Asian bloc Asean will hold an informal meeting with their Myanmar counterpart in Bangkok on July 12, Thailand and Vietnam said on Thursday.

The meeting comes as the new army-backed government in Myanmar, in place following an election earlier in the year, seeks the lifting of a ban on its leaders, after they were sidelined from Asean’s summits following a 2021 military coup and an ensuing civil war.

“The meetings in Bangkok is an opportunity for Asean foreign ministers to directly exchange views, strengthen cooperation, and promote reconciliation dialogue in Myanmar,” Vietnam foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a briefing.

Thailand’s foreign ministry also confirmed the meeting in a schedule for a regular press conference.

The protracted civil war in Myanmar, in which an array of armed group are battling against the military, has devastated swathes of the impoverished nation, killing over 100,000 people and displacing millions.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers had at a summit in May agreed to hold a virtual meeting with Myanmar’s top diplomat at an unspecified date, following a push by Thailand to foster greater engagement with the ‌new administration in Naypyitaw.

The 11-member Asean had distanced itself from Myanmar’s junta after the ruling generals failed to act on the bloc’s peace plan, known as the “five-point consensus”, but many of its member states have since changed tack.

Myanmar’s former junta chief turned president, Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 coup, made a state visit to Laos last week, his first trip to an Asean member state since taking on his new civilian role.