Ministry Of Foreign Affairs: Urgent Issues Of Myanmar To Be Resolved Immediately By ASEAN

A group of women carried a torch, as they protested against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Director General for ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Sidharto R Suryodipuro emphasized that the crisis in Myanmar which was triggered by a military coup since February 2021 is an urgent issue to be resolved immediately.

According to Sidharto, the military coup has sparked a serious political and humanitarian crisis, with widespread repercussions not only for Myanmar itself.

“This also violates the provisions in the ASEAN Charter which clearly mentions constitutional government. So this is an urgent problem to be resolved immediately," Sidharto said, as quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 29.

In an effort to help speed up the settlement of the crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia will consistently lead ASEAN in implementing the Five Point Consensus (5PC) which was agreed upon by ASEAN leaders in April 2021.

The Five Point Consensus was the decision by ASEAN leaders after a special meeting, which was also attended by Myanmar junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, to help the country overcome its political crisis.

The consensus calls for ending violence, dialogue with all stakeholders, appointing a special envoy to facilitate mediation and dialogue, allowing ASEAN to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar citizens, and allowing the ASEAN special envoy to visit and meet with all stakeholders in Myanmar.

Apart from serving as ASEAN chairman this year, the Indonesian Foreign Minister will also carry out his duties as the ASEAN Special Envoy for Myanmar as did the two previous ASEAN chairmen, namely Brunei Darussalam and Cambodia who appointed their foreign ministers as special envoys.

"The Foreign Minister (Retno Marsudi) has formed an office of the special envoy that will assist her in strengthening humanitarian assistance and bringing all parties into dialogue," said Sidharto.

"We hope dialogue between the parties in Myanmar can begin. The problem is whether they have the courage to engage in dialogue or not? So the key is their own courage to carry out dialogue, then ASEAN will help," he said.

Given the complexity of the issues in Myanmar, Sidharto said that realistically the crisis would not be resolved in just one year, or during Indonesia's chairmanship of ASEAN.

"But we are quite optimistic that we will make progress in the process, because we are also affected by ASEAN problems such as the flow of refugees flowing into neighboring countries (Myanmar)," he said.