WASHINGTON: Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Friday that conditions were not yet right for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to open high-level talks with Myanmar on the country's political situation.
"We believe it would be premature to reengage with the junta at a summit level or even at a foreign minister level," Balakrishnan said when asked about a news report that Thailand's military-controlled caretaker government had proposed talks.
Speaking in a joint press conference in Washington with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Balakrishnan said the leaders of the Asean had recently reaffirmed their stance.
"We condemned the coup, and the ongoing violence against civilians, the instability in the country, the setback to national reconciliation, and the enormous impact on the economy," he said of the 2021 military takeover in Myanmar.
"Unfortunately, it's now more than two years. We haven't seen any signs of improvement," Balakrishnan said.
The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar-focused news website operated in Thailand, said that Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed in a recent letter to host an informal ministerial meeting of some Asean members with Myanmar on Monday to relaunch engagement.
Balakrishnan did not reject all engagement with the Myanmar junta.
"The key point is this. You do need everyone ultimately to sit down and negotiate," the Singapore diplomat said.
"I don't know how long it will take. The last time it took 25 years for some form of democratic transition to occur in Myanmar. I hope it won't take that long," he said.
Blinken said the US backs Asean efforts to resolve the violence that has resulted in the deaths of 6,000 civilians since the February 2021, according to the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
“It’s very important that we continue, all of us, to sustain the appropriate pressure on the junta and look for ways of course to engage the opposition” in Myanmar,” he said.
Thailand has proposed to host an informal ministerial meeting of some Asean members with Myanmar on Sunday and Monday.
“It is time for Asean to fully re-engage Myanmar at the leaders’ level,” according to a Thai government letter. “In consideration of several pressing factors, the time for dialogues is sooner rather than later.”
A Myanmar junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal.
A Southeast Asian official familiar with the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity that Malaysia would not attend the proposed meeting.
But the Cambodian government said its foreign minister would attend the two-day informal discussions in Bangkok.
The meeting will focus on advancing Asean’s five-point peace plan agreed with Myanmar two years ago, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said.
Asean’s last summit, held in May, ended without any significant progress on that peace plan, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo warning that the bloc risks becoming irrelevant.