LUANG PRABANG, Laos — China’s increasingly assertive stance in the South China Sea and escalating violence in Myanmar topped the agenda of Southeast Asian diplomats at a meeting in Laos on Monday, with the Lao foreign minister saying progress could be made this year. He expressed cautious optimism on both tough issues.
Lao Foreign Minister Sarmsai Kommasit told reporters that Thailand is moving ahead with plans to provide more humanitarian aid to Myanmar, where more than 2.6 million people have been displaced by the civil war.
He said the military leaders who took control of Myanmar from the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi government in February 2021 will be attending the 2020 ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting for the first time at a high-level level. He said sending a representative was a good sign. Luang Prabang is a historical city in Laos.
“We have to admit that the problems that are happening in Myanmar are not going to be solved overnight, but we feel a little optimistic that this engagement might work,” Salmsai said. Ta. “I think there’s probably a little light at the end of the tunnel.”
Myanmar has been barred from sending its foreign minister and political representatives to ASEAN high-level meetings since blocking talks with ASEAN special envoy Suu Kyi in late 2021. Instead, it sends non-political representatives to lower-level working meetings, but refuses to send anyone to high-level meetings.
However, the country has dispatched ASEAN Under-Secretary-General Mala Tan Htike, a civil servant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Laos, which Salmsai called “a positive sign.”
ASEAN members Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Laos have a combined population of nearly 650 million people and a GDP of more than $3 trillion.
Landlocked Laos, which took over rotating ASEAN leadership this year, is one of the region’s poorest and smallest countries, and many have expressed skepticism about how much it can achieve amid the mounting crisis.
Still, this is the first time since the military took over that the ASEAN countries bordering Myanmar have held the chair, offering a different perspective from previous chairs.
Laos has already sent a special envoy to Myanmar and is meeting with the chairman of the ruling party’s military council and other senior officials to advance the five-point agreement plan for peace in ASEAN.
The plan calls for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar, dialogue among all parties, mediation by an ASEAN envoy, provision of humanitarian assistance through ASEAN channels, and a visit by a special envoy to Myanmar to meet with all stakeholders. ing.
Myanmar’s military leadership has so far ignored the plan, and violence and the humanitarian crisis are rapidly escalating.
Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told reporters after the meeting that it was “helpful” to have Myanmar’s representative attend again, but was optimistic that Myanmar would take concrete steps to implement the plan. He said he could not say.
“If we look to the past, it can take a very long time for positive change to occur,” he says. “We don’t want to raise unrealistic hopes and expectations.”
Saliumsay said ASEAN will continue to seek full implementation of the agreement while increasing humanitarian assistance.
“I think the immediate priority in implementing the five-point agreement is humanitarian assistance,” he said. “In this regard, we welcome the Thai government’s efforts to create a humanitarian corridor that can provide aid and assistance to all Myanmar citizens.”
Communist Laos is one of the ASEAN countries with the closest ties to China, and is seeking assistance from its giant neighbor in dealing with the crisis in Myanmar, over which Beijing also wields considerable influence. There is some speculation that he may seek it.
However, China has said it will not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, and it is unclear whether such a role would be acceptable to other ASEAN members.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei are embroiled in a maritime dispute with China over de facto sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important waterways for shipping. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s incursions into its exclusive economic zone.
An estimated $5 trillion in international trade passes through the South China Sea each year, putting China in direct conflict with the Philippines and Vietnam, among others.
The ASEAN meeting in Laos was held on the same day that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with Vietnamese officials to discuss ongoing tensions, particularly in the South China Sea.
The Philippines is seeking more support from its ASEAN neighbors as hostilities with China become increasingly tense, threatening to escalate into a broader conflict that could involve Manila’s longtime treaty ally Washington. Many people are concerned about sexuality.
The Philippine government has protested dangerous interdiction actions by the Chinese Coast Guard, which used water cannons and military lasers and caused minor skirmishes off the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Reef.
China and ASEAN agreed to declarations on conduct in the South China Sea in 2002 and 2012 aimed at “strengthening favorable conditions for the peaceful and durable resolution of differences and disputes,” but in recent years shows little sign of adhering to that declaration. .
In Luang Prabang, the group stressed the importance of “fully and effectively” implementing the declaration, according to a statement released by Laos after the meeting.
“We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, security and freedom of navigation in and over the South China Sea,” it said.
Under Indonesia’s chairmanship last year, ASEAN agreed with China on guidelines to accelerate negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea, but no results have yet been achieved.
Salmsai said during Monday’s talks that several ASEAN countries brought up tensions in the South China Sea and that Laos hoped to hold a third reading of the code of conduct with China “as soon as possible.”
“This will create an environment in which both ASEAN member states, particularly claimant states, and China can build more trust and confidence,” he said. “Whatever happens in the South China Sea should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation.”
Saliumsay said all parties with territorial claims in the South China Sea must respect the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Under the treaty, a UN-backed tribunal ruled in 2016 that China’s extensive claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds were invalid, and that Beijing had violated the rights of Filipinos to fish in shallow waters. It was decided that there was.
China has refused to participate in the arbitration, rejects its results, and remains defiant.
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Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this article.