More than two years after the Myanmar coup, the divided 10-member ASEAN bloc's peace efforts remain fruitless, as the Myanmar junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents.

After wrangling over the wording on Myanmar the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta issued a lengthy Joint Communique that only devoted five paragraphs to Myanmar.

The following is the ASEAN stance on the Myanmar crisis:

Developments in Myanmar

142. We discussed the developments in Myanmar and reaffirmed our united position

that the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) remains our main reference to address

the political crisis in Myanmar. We strongly condemned the continued acts of

violence, including air strikes, artillery shelling, and destruction of public

facilities and urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately

halt indiscriminate violence, denounce any escalation, and create a conducive

environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and inclusive national

dialogue.

143. We commended the AHA Centre for its partial delivery of aid to 400 households

of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Hsiseng Township, located in the

Southern Shan State, on July 7, 2023. We appreciated the support of the

relevant stakeholders in ensuring safe delivery. We called on further facilitation

to ensure the humanitarian assistance can safely reach the 1,1 million Internally

Displaced Persons (IDPs) identified in the Joint Need Assessment (JNA)

Report of the AHA Centre. We appreciated the support from all stakeholders in

Myanmar for helping the completion of the JNA by the AHA Centre in an

inclusive manner facilitated by the ASEAN Chair. We called for additional

support from the international community for humanitarian assistance to

implement the JNA Report.

144. We appreciated the Chair’s efforts in intensifying engagement with all relevant

stakeholders in Myanmar to build trust and confidence, create a conducive

environment, and bridge gaps and differences leading toward an inclusive

dialogue for a comprehensive political solution. We supported sustaining such

engagements to push for the implementation of the 5PC in its entirety, in line

with our Leaders ’decision at the 42nd ASEAN Summit. We called for continued

support of the External Partners, including the UN and neighbouring countries

of Myanmar, to work with ASEAN for concrete implementation of the 5PC.

145. In line with paragraph 14 of the ASEAN Leaders ’Review and Decision on the

Implementation of Five-Point Consensus, we were briefed by Thailand on its

recent activities on Myanmar, which a number of ASEAN Member States

viewed as a positive development. We reaffirmed ASEAN unity and reiterated

that any effort should support, in line with 5PC and in coordination with the

Chair of ASEAN.

146. We will conduct our comprehensive review of the 5PC implementation and

submit our recommendation to the 43rd ASEAN Summit.