On Saturday, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong called on Myanmar’s military junta to shift away from its violent crackdown on dissent, stating that the ongoing conflict in the war-torn country is "not sustainable."

Wong made these remarks at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, where the crisis in Myanmar, a member state, has caused significant division within the bloc.

Myanmar has been embroiled in civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup. Shortly after taking control, the junta agreed to a five-point peace plan with ASEAN but has yet to implement it.

"Myanmar is deeply concerning; we see it in the economy, instability, insecurity, deaths," Wong told journalists at a press conference. "The message I want to send to the military regime is ‘this is not sustainable for you and your people.’ We urge them to take a different path and reflect the five-point consensus."

Due to its crackdown on dissent, the junta has been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings. Although it previously refused to send “non-political representatives,” two senior bureaucrats are currently representing Myanmar at the talks in Vientiane.

A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking anonymously to AFP earlier this week, indicated that the military’s willingness to re-engage diplomatically signals its "weakened position."

Recently, ethnic minority armed groups have renewed their offensive against the military in northern Shan state, capturing territory along a crucial highway to China. Myanmar’s military has yet to launch a significant counterattack following a previous offensive by ethnic armed groups in October, which resulted in the loss of large areas along the Chinese border. These losses have led to rare public criticism of the junta's top leadership.

ASEAN has led diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, albeit with limited success. Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have called for stronger actions against the junta, while Thailand has held separate bilateral talks with the generals and detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United Nations reports that the conflict in Myanmar has displaced 2.7 million people since the coup in 2021.

BOB Post