Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has issued a stark call to Myanmar’s junta, urging them to abandon their bloody crackdown on dissent. Speaking at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, Wong emphasized the unsustainable nature of the current situation in Myanmar, which has been embroiled in civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.
The crisis in Myanmar has deeply divided ASEAN, with the country’s junta facing widespread condemnation for its brutal suppression of dissent. Despite agreeing to a five-point peace plan in the weeks following the coup, the junta has failed to implement it, resulting in a worsening humanitarian crisis marked by widespread instability, economic decline, and a mounting death toll.
“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.”
The junta’s actions have led to their exclusion from high-level ASEAN meetings. While initially refusing to send “non-political representatives,” the junta has sent two senior bureaucrats to the current talks in Vientiane.
Earlier this week, a Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the junta’s willingness to re-engage diplomatically indicates a “weakened position.” This assessment is further supported by the recent resurgence of fighting in northern Shan state, where ethnic minority armed groups have launched an offensive against the military, seizing territory along a vital highway to China.
The junta’s inability to effectively counter these attacks, following similar setbacks in October, has sparked rare public criticism of its top leadership.
Despite the severity of the crisis, ASEAN’s diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation have yielded little success. Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have called for stricter measures against the junta, while Thailand has held separate bilateral talks with the junta and detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The ongoing conflict has resulted in a tragic humanitarian toll, with the United Nations reporting that 2.7 million people have been displaced from their homes since the 2021 coup.
Australia’s call for a change in course by the junta underscores the growing international pressure on Myanmar’s military leaders to end the violence and engage in a genuine dialogue aimed at a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
