At the annual ASEAN summit in Vientiane on Thursday, Southeast Asian leaders strongly condemned Myanmar's junta for failing to implement a peace plan aimed at ending the country's ongoing civil war. According to a draft summit statement obtained by AFP, the leaders described the junta’s progress as "substantially inadequate."

The five-point peace plan, agreed upon by Myanmar's military government and ASEAN shortly after the coup in February 2021, has largely been ignored as the junta continues its violent crackdown on dissent. The conflict has claimed thousands of lives, displaced millions, and driven many young citizens to seek better opportunities abroad.

During the summit, ASEAN leaders reiterated their demand for the junta to adhere to the "five-point consensus," urging Myanmar's military and security forces to reduce violence and halt attacks on civilians and public infrastructure. However, similar calls made during past summits in 2022 and 2023 have yielded little progress.

The United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, criticized the global response to the conflict, stating that current efforts were "clearly not working." Andrews, speaking from Australia, called for a coordinated international strategy to cut off the junta's access to "money, weapons, and legitimacy."

Despite recent military defeats at the hands of ethnic minority groups and pro-democracy forces, Myanmar's junta extended an unprecedented invitation to its opponents late last month to cease fighting and enter negotiations. However, key armed groups dismissed the offer, viewing it as a move to appease China, a major ally of the junta, which is concerned about instability near its borders.

At the summit, ASEAN leaders held their first face-to-face meeting with a senior Myanmar junta official in more than three years, but the talks failed to produce any significant breakthrough. With formal diplomacy stalled, Thailand plans to host informal discussions on the Myanmar crisis in December, involving ASEAN members and potentially neighboring countries such as China and India.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Laos on Thursday ahead of the East Asia Summit, where he is expected to urge stronger international pressure on Myanmar’s military government.

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