JAKARTA, Sept 6 — The United States has pledged to support the Asean group of Southeast Asian countries in solving the crisis in Myanmar, where the military junta has violently cracked down on protesters since a 2021 coup.
“The United States will continue to press the regime to end the horrific violence to release all those unjustly detained, and to re-establish Myanmar’s path to inclusive democracy,” US Vice President Kamala Harris told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Jakarta on Wednesday, reported the German News Agency (dpa).
Washington would continue to demonstrate ‘the enduring and important relationship between the United States and Southeast Asia’, she said.
Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021, ousting democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has since been detained and handed a lengthy prison sentence.
Since the coup, Myanmar has endured chaos and violence. The junta suppresses all resistance with brutal force.
Myanmar is now almost completely isolated internationally. Junta members are not allowed to attend Asean meetings, with the issue high on the agenda again at this year’s summit.
The US will ‘continue to support the Asean Five-Point Consensus more broadly’, Harris said, referring to a plan devised by the Asean members in 2021 to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
It stipulates an immediate end to violence and calls for dialogue between all parties to the conflict. The junta has ignored the plan.
Leaders of the 10 Asean member states are meeting in the Indonesian capital until Thursday. Besides Harris, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Qiang have also participated in talks at the three-day summit.
Cooperation in the South China Sea, sustainability, economic cooperation, human rights, and cybersecurity are also on the agenda.
— Bernama
