Myanmar's shadow

MYANMAR'S SHADOW

Southeast Asian foreign ministers are meeting in Indonesia’s capital Friday, Feb. 3 2024 for talks bound to be dominated by the deteriorating situation in Myanmar despite an agenda focused on food and energy security and cooperation in finance and health. Myanmar belongs to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but the annual ministers’ retreat is being held in Jakarta without Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin. The absence was forced by the fallout over implementing a five-step agreement made in 2021 between Asean leaders and Myanmar’s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. In the agreement, Myanmar’s military leaders promised to allow a special Asean envoy to meet the ousted and jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others to foster dialogue aimed at easing the crisis. Analysts said the shadow of the military takeover in Myanmar looms large over the foreign ministers’ meeting, even as Indonesia, the chairman of Asean this year, seeks to dampen concerns that the issue will not hold the bloc “hostage.” Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Indonesia would ensure the focus is on the development of the regional bloc as a community and to capitalize on Asean's economic growth, which always records stronger growth than the global economy. Another area of focus for Indonesia a is peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, Marsudi said, signaling that Asean would not be a pawn in the growing tensions between the United States and China.

PHOTOS BY: AP

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