Southeast Asian leaders pressed Myanmar's junta and its opponents on Wednesday to take "concrete action" to stop the bloodshed in the country's civil war and sought to kickstart faltering diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has tried to no avail to find a negotiated solution to the Myanmar crisis, which has killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes since the military seized power in February 2021. The crisis dominated the first day of the ASEAN summit in Vientiane, where the disputed South China Sea will also be high on the agenda.
ASEAN leaders held their first face-to-face talks with a senior Myanmar junta representative in more than three years on the first day. The junta has suffered serious battlefield defeats over the past year during a renewed offensive by ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces" that rose up to oppose its coup. ASEAN leaders condemned attacks on civilians and "urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately halt indiscriminate violence", according to a draft summit chairman's statement seen by AFP.
The junta agreed to a "five point consensus" plan with ASEAN to restore peace weeks after it ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government, but instead pushed ahead with a bloody crackdown on opposition to its rule. After condemning Myanmar for ignoring the five-point plan at summits in 2022 and 2023, the leaders insisted again .