ASEAN unity won’t be held hostage by Myanmar crisis: Retno – Asia and Pacific

Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi vowed on Wednesday that Indonesia, as the ASEAN chair for 2023, would not allow the democratic crisis in Myanmar to stymie the bloc’s work toward enhanced unity in the region.

Speaking during an event outlining Indonesia’s foreign policy for this year, Retno said Indonesia would ensure that its ASEAN chairmanship remained focused on the development of the regional bloc as a community, and that the Myanmar issue would not be allowed to hold the bloc’s development as a hostage.

“ASEAN was disappointed that regardless of the efforts by the chair and all ASEAN member states, […] the Myanmar military junta made no significant progress in implementing the 5PC,” Retno said, referring to the Five-Point Consensus to resolve the Myanmar crisis that was agreed in Jakarta in 2021.

The minister further pledged that, as the ASEAN chair this year, Indonesia would take measures based entirely on the Five-Point Consensus as well as the fundamental principles in the ASEAN Charter.

“Indonesia will engage with all stakeholders,” she said.

“Only through engagement with all stakeholders” could the agreement’s mandate to facilitate the creation of national dialogue be fulfilled, Retno added.

Indonesia formally commenced its ASEAN chairmanship on Jan. 1. The last time Indonesia chaired the regional bloc was in 2011 after swapping with Brunei Darussalam, which took up the chairmanship in 2013.