Junta must show good faith in national reconciliation bid: Vivian

Myanmar's military authorities must show good faith and sincerity in their efforts to achieve national reconciliation and dialogue, said Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday.

He said the amount of access the authorities grant to the Asean special envoy will be a "litmus test" of this.

"If he is not given access to the stakeholders, that severely constricts his role and actually makes it harder for resolution," Dr Balakrishnan said during a virtual interview after attending in person a meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

He said the onus would ultimately be on the Myanmar junta leaders to achieve reconciliation and dialogue.

"If you were asking me for advice, I would say that I cannot imagine any solution right now without Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - but that is not my position nor my call," he said.

Mr Prak Sokhonn, who is Cambodia's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, is the current Asean special envoy on Myanmar, as his country is the current chair for the regional grouping.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military staged a coup and ousted the elected government led by Ms Suu Kyi on Feb 1 last year. The Nobel Peace laureate is on trial, facing a host of charges, including election fraud and bribery, that carry a combined maximum sentence of at least 150 years in prison.

The coup has triggered massive demonstrations and violence in Myanmar, with thousands killed or displaced and millions more at risk of poverty and hunger.

Since last October, Asean has invited only a "non-political" representative from Myanmar to attend its meetings, and Dr Balakrishnan has emphasised that the country remains a member of Asean.

"We have not even excluded them - the current military authorities - from our meeting... Even today, they dialled in, they had access to our meetings," he said, in response to questions about the decision to bar junta leaders from key Asean meetings over their failure to honour a peace plan agreed with the bloc.

He said he would not call it an exclusion, but a "signal of disappointment and dismay" at the lack of progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus that Myanmar agreed to last year. Among other things, the consensus called for an immediate end to hostilities and to allow a special envoy to facilitate dialogue.

Dr Balakrishnan said Asean has maintained a unified position over Myanmar.

"So far, we have been able to maintain unity where it counts, we have been able to act collectively," he said, noting that this was especially significant in the area of humanitarian assistance to the country.

Echoing a point made by Mr Prak Sokhonn, Dr Balakrishnan said the situation in Myanmar would not "hijack" Asean's "big picture" agenda, with the focus on important strategic projects and relationships in and around the region.

Against the backdrop of the intensifying competition between major powers China and the United States, Dr Balakrishnan also said that Asean must continue to maintain its centrality, unity and relevance in approaching "the most consequential, dynamic relationship that will impact the world".

The foreign ministers, during the two-day meeting - the first convened by Cambodia as Asean chair this year - also discussed Covid-19 recovery efforts, community-building activities and regional economic integration within the bloc.