Min Aung Hlaing Courts ASEAN as Bloc Splits on Myanmar — SkimNews
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- Min Aung Hlaing completed a two-day visit to Malaysia on Thursday — the fifth ASEAN member state to host him since he took office as president in April, after Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and the first from maritime Southeast Asia.
- Myanmar government spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe said Indonesia and Brunei plan to invite Min Aung Hlaing for official visits, per information shared by Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim during their meeting in Putrajaya last week.
- ASEAN excluded Myanmar from summits in late 2021 over the junta's failure to implement the Five-Point Consensus, which called for cessation of violence, humanitarian access, and inclusive dialogue with 'all parties.'
- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who holds ASEAN's rotating chair, told the Straits Times he proposed a 'new approach' on Myanmar, calling Min Aung Hlaing's recent visits 'the beginning which has never happened before.'
- Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Parliament in February the Five-Point Consensus remains the primary reference and Myanmar's non-political representation at summits will continue until 'meaningful progress' — defined as permanent cessation of violence, release of political detainees, and humanitarian access.
- Timor-Leste has permitted legal authorities to initiate a case against Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials, a stance the article flags as 'the first real test' of whether Dili has been socialized into the 'ASEAN way.'
- Myanmar's military continues attacks on civilian populations and has rejected ASEAN demands including an audience with detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, suggesting full normalization remains unlikely without gestures of compliance with the Consensus.
Why it matters: The ASEAN bloc's decade-long unity on isolating Myanmar is fracturing along a mainland-vs-maritime divide, with Thailand and Malaysia explicitly backing reintegration while Singapore and Timor-Leste hold the line on the Five-Point Consensus. Any rollback of the consensus would reward a junta still conducting civilian attacks and refusing dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi — setting a precedent for how the 11-nation bloc handles coup-installed governments.
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