ASEAN Agrees On Special Envoy, Indonesia: Success For Special Envoy, Success For Myanmar

Illustration of Myanmar's military anti-coup demonstration. (Wikimedia Commons/Ninjastrikers)

JAKARTA - Four months after the ASEAN Leaders' Meeting (ALM) in Jakarta last April, the Minister of Foreign Affairs II of Brunei Darussalam Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof was agreed to be a special envoy for Myanmar.

In a virtual press statement Wednesday, August 4, the Director General of ASEAN Cooperation, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sidharto R Suryodipuro, said that ASEAN was united in supporting and accepting this special envoy.

"The special envoy will immediately start work, have full access to all parties in Myanmar and will report to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in September," explained Sidharto.

He further said that the implementation of the 5 Points of Consensus (5PCs) as a result of the ASEAN Leaders' Meeting (ALM) regarding Myanmar was urgent, urgent, without conditionality and not associated with other matters.

"Myanmar must work together in the context of ASEAN. After all, the success of the special envoy is Myanmar's success in getting out of the multi-layered crisis, economic politics plus COVID-19, so everyone hopes that this special envoy will be successful," continued Sidharto.

Director General of ASEAN Cooperation, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sidharto R Suryodipuro

On this occasion, Sidharto also explained that ASEAN agreed that the AHA Center (ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Center) would immediately provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar. And, the implementation of 5 PCs, special envoys and the provision of assistance by the AHA Center, received very strong support from all ASEAN partners.

He added that the joint communiqué resulting from the 54th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) was not legitimizing the Myanmar military regime.

"Different from the previous AMM, where the opening paragraph of the results of the meeting began with the words 'we the ministers'. Since the February 1 coup, every official ministerial level document has been changed to 'the meetings'. There is no acknowledgment, at least a formal acknowledgment of attendance ( Myanmar military regime) by the ministers," he concluded.

The Myanmar Coup. VOI editors continue to monitor the political situation in one of the ASEAN member countries. Civilian casualties continued to fall. Readers can follow news about the Myanmar military coup by tapping this link.