ASEAN Talks to Myanmar's Junta, But Won't Yet Let It Back to the Table

At a press briefing at the International Media Centre, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro responded to media questions on Myanmar. Photo: Carla Teng-Westergaard/AMC

A Retreat, an Extended Consultation, and a Warning

The discussions began July 21–22 with the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat and an Extended Informal Consultation (EIC) on Myanmar, chaired in Pasay City by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who also serves as the ASEAN Chair's Special Envoy on Myanmar. Ministers said the talks built directly on informal consultations held the week before in Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand.

"Through these meetings, I am optimistic about our commitment to assist Myanmar in achieving a lasting solution that is Myanmar-owned and Myanmar-led, and one that ultimately will benefit the Myanmar people and the region as a whole," Lazaro told reporters, describing ASEAN's continued anchor in the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), the 2021 roadmap calling for an immediate end to violence, inclusive dialogue, humanitarian access, appointment of a special envoy, and envoy visits to Myanmar.

Two structural proposals emerged from the EIC:

• A permanent, long-term ASEAN Special Envoy on Myanmar, replacing the current one-year rotating post, to give the bloc's engagement more continuity.

• A formal benchmarking tool to measure Myanmar's compliance with the 5PC, rather than relying on informal assessments.

Both ideas need further work. "The Foreign Ministers agreed that for these proposals to come to fruition, such would require the continuous deliberation of our Senior Officials as to how this may be integrated in the outcome documents," Lazaro said.

By July 23: A Reality Check

A day later, at a press conference following the broader ministerial meeting, Lazaro was more pointed about what all of this actually means for Myanmar's junta-led government: its leaders are not coming back to ASEAN's summits anytime soon.

"It's still far off," she said, when asked about Myanmar's return to top-level ASEAN meetings, a status the country's leadership has been denied since 2021, when ASEAN barred junta representatives over the roadmap's non-implementation. "There have been a lot of questions on their compliance."

The forthcoming benchmarks, she said, will be used to formally define non-compliance going forward, turning what has largely been an ad hoc, consensus-based judgement call into something closer to a measurable standard.

Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the February 2021 coup and now holds the title of president following widely criticised elections earlier this year, agreed to the Five-Point Consensus just two months after seizing power. Myanmar's military-dominated parliament has since moved in the opposite direction, recently passing a motion rejecting the 5PC outright and calling it foreign interference, a rebuff that adds weight to Lazaro's scepticism about near-term reintegration.

Engagement Without Endorsement

The tougher tone follows weeks of ASEAN edging closer to direct contact with Naypyidaw than at any point since the coup. On July 12, Lazaro held a bilateral meeting in Bangkok with Myanmar's junta-appointed foreign minister, U Tin Maung Swe, their first such meeting in five years, followed by an "icebreaker" informal session in Pattaya where ASEAN counterparts heard a briefing from Myanmar on its 5PC implementation, its own "100-day peace plan", and efforts against transnational crime.

That outreach drew sharp criticism from the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), an independent expert group, which argued the meetings risked legitimising a junta accused of killing tens of thousands of civilians and holding more than 22,000 people in arbitrary detention since Min Aung Hlaing's self-declared presidency in April. Lazaro rejected that characterisation as "malicious and misleading", saying the Bangkok engagement was carried out under a mandate from ASEAN leaders at the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu and did not amount to abandoning the 5PC.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, who hosted the Bangkok and Pattaya sessions, struck a similar note, calling engagement a "two-way street" that requires Myanmar to also address ASEAN's, and the international community's, concerns.

The 80-year-old Nobel laureate has remained largely out of public view since being arrested after the military ousted her elected government more than five years ago.

The Suu Kyi Question

Hanging over all of this is the unresolved status of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and former civilian leader ousted in the 2021 coup and sentenced to decades in prison on charges her supporters call politically motivated.

State media announced in late April that she had been moved from Naypyidaw Prison to house arrest, and her legal team was reportedly given a rare visit shortly afterwards, though multiple court sources at the time disputed that any meeting had actually taken place, and her legal team has otherwise been denied access since late 2022.

Lazaro, who is set to lead a humanitarian mission to Myanmar later in 2026, said on Wednesday that it remains uncertain whether she will be granted access to Aung San Suu Kyi during that visit.

-Asia Media Centre