Stop demanding a total ceasefire first in Myanmar
ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus risks irrelevance if member states remain wedded to binary thinking.
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ASEAN should acknowledge that progress towards peace will be through stepped engagement with the country’s realities, says the writer.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
Alistair D. B. Cook and Joel Ng
As the ASEAN Summit approaches, the region’s handling of the situation in Myanmar is once again in the limelight.
Min Aung Hlaing has launched diplomatic overtures across Southeast Asia, China and Russia while asserting that the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) - brokered shortly after the 2021 coup - was circulated without proper notification. In response, critics accuse ASEAN of drift, while observers fear irreconcilable fractures within the grouping over how to proceed.