Myanmar to send rep to Asean summit for first time in three years

People drive their motorbike near a flag of Laos at the entrance of the National Convention Centre in Vientiane on October 7, 2024, ahead of the 44th and 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits. Agence France-Presse

VIENTIANE — Myanmar will send a representative to a regional summit this week for the first time in three years, a diplomatic source told AFP Tuesday, as the ruling junta struggles to quell a civil war.

The conflict will be high on the agenda as leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meet in Laos from Wednesday, though more than three years of efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis have had no impact.

Asean barred Myanmar junta leaders from its summits in the wake of their February 2021 coup, and the generals have refused to send “non-political representatives” instead.

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But Myanmar — one of 10 Asean member states — has sent a senior foreign ministry official as its representative to the three-day meeting in Vientiane, a southeast Asian diplomat involved in the meetings told AFP.

Weeks after seizing power, the junta agreed to a “five-point consensus” plan aimed at restoring peace, but ignored it and carried on a bloody crackdown on dissent and armed opposition to its rule.

“The significance is that in a sense they are accepting the five-point consensus,” the diplomat told AFP.

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“They may have thought that it’s better to have their own voice heard rather than be on the outside.”

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing attended an emergency Asean summit on the crisis in April 2021, but the bloc has refused to invite him to regular gatherings since.