SINGAPORE, Jan 10 — ASEAN continues to urge the Myanmar military or Tatmadaw to implement the Five-Point Consensus “swiftly and fully”, said Singapore’s Minister For Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
The minister said the military is also urged to cooperate with ASEAN and the next ASEAN Chair’s Special Envoy on Myanmar to make tangible progress, including by giving the Special Envoy access to all concerned parties in Myanmar.
Balakrishnan said this in his written reply to a parliamentary question “to what extent there is disagreement among ASEAN Member States over the approach to take regarding the political situation in Myanmar.”
According to him, ASEAN has taken a “firm and consistent” approach to the situation in Myanmar following the Feb 1 2021 coup.
The Five-Point Consensus was formulated by the ASEAN Leaders and accepted by junta-led Senior General Min Aung Hlaing at their meeting on April 24, 2021 in Jakarta, he said in the reply.
However, the minister said ASEAN “remains deeply disappointed with the limited progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus.”
Accordingly, he said, the ASEAN Leaders reaffirmed the Five-Point Consensus at the ASEAN Summits in November 2022, and “agreed on a series of steps to send a clear signal to the Myanmar military”.
The Five-Point Consensus are: end the violence; hold constructive talks among all stakeholders; ASEAN provides humanitarian aid to Myanmar; a special ASEAN envoy appointed to conduct talks; and the envoy to be allowed to visit the country.
