ASEAN envoy meets Myanmar opposition groups in Thailand

ASEAN’s special envoy on Myanmar held talks with ethnic minority rebel groups and a government-backed negotiation committee in an effort to tackle a civil war, with both sides expressing openness to dialogue, the Philippines said on Tuesday.

The talks took place in Thailand on Monday and followed a separate meeting a day earlier between foreign ministers of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Myanmar counterpart, their first face-to-face talks since a 2021 military coup in Myanmar that triggered nationwide conflict.

Myanmar’s army-backed leadership has been barred from top-level ASEAN meetings over their failure to comply with ASEAN’s five-year-old “Five-Point Consensus” peace initiative, but some members of the bloc hope Sunday’s meeting can lead to progress.

But some analysts have said that re-engaging with Myanmar’s new nominally civilian government, led by former junta chief turned president, Min Aung Hlaing, could weaken ASEAN’s leverage.  

‘Way forward’ on dialogue

ASEAN special envoy Maria Theresa Lazaro, the foreign minister of the Philippines, met “to discuss the way forward on an inclusive national political dialogue” with representatives of some of Myanmar rebel groups and the military-formed National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiation Committee, according to a Philippine foreign ministry statement.

ASEAN to discuss engagement with Myanmar at special meeting, Philippines says

“All sides expressed openness to the dialogue process and emphasised the importance of constructive dialogue,” it said.

Several ethnic armed groups contacted by Reuters declined to comment.

The National Unity Government, a parallel administration in exile formed by remnants of the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose elected government was toppled in the coup, said it was not invited and expressed concern over the talks.

“We have major questions about whether this meeting is intended to implement the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus, or if it is based on the military junta’s 100-day project and their own peace plan,” the NUG’s foreign minister Zin Mar Aung told Reuters.

After it took office in April, Myanmar’s military-backed government announced it was seeking peace talks with opposition armed groups within 100 days.

The 2021 coup led to nationwide protests against military rule that morphed into a civil war fought on multiple fronts between the armed forces and various rebel and militia groups.

An estimated 100,000 people have been killed 3.6 million displaced.

Min Aung Hlaing was elected president in April by a parliament dominated by a pro-military party following a one-sided election earlier in the year that human rights groups and Western governments called a sham.