SINGAPORE: Singapore’s defence minister says Myanmar’s actions could weaken a key principle that underpins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Myanmar’s behaviour risks undermining the ASEAN Centrality that we have painstakingly built over the past two decades (of defence cooperation),” said Dr Ng Eng Hen, according to a news release from Singapore’s defence ministry (MINDEF) on Wednesday (Nov 20).
Speaking at the 18th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) in Laos, Dr Ng added the ADMM, the regional bloc’s highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism, could “lose credibility” as a result.
Myanmar has been in a state of unrest since February 2021, when its military seized control and ousted a democratically elected government, sparking protests and leaving the junta struggling to hold on to its power.
ASEAN centrality refers to the principle that ASEAN should maintain a leading role in regional cooperation and diplomacy. Myanmar is one of ten members in the grouping.
Dr Ng’s comments were in reaction to what MINDEF said were issues that came to a standstill because of Myanmar’s objection. The ministry did not go into the details of these issues.
“Dr Ng noted that Myanmar’s behaviour is not in line with the ASEAN Leaders’ Review and Decision on the Implementation of the Five-Point Consensus issued in October 2024 which called for the crisis in Myanmar to not affect ASEAN decision-making,” said MINDEF.
The Five-Point Consensus is a peace plan agreed upon by the 10-member bloc in hopes to end the crisis, but is largely ignored by the junta.
“He (Dr Ng) urged Myanmar ‘not to use ASEAN for its own politics of retaliation (and) not to put the ADMM in a difficult position for its own purposes’,” MINDEF added.
Dr Ng urged the other ministers to “be united in working together for the interests of the ADMM to maintain its centrality”. The ADMM also agreed to continue discussions on the issues next year.
Since the military coup, more than 5,000 civilians have been killed and over 3.3 million displaced, according to a United Nations report in September this year.
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