Analysis

Despite ban, regime officials continue to represent Myanmar at ASEAN meetings

Senior junta officials have attended more than 500 of the regional bloc’s meetings in the three years since they were ostensibly excluded for ignoring calls to end violence against civilians

As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) brings its most important gathering of the year to a close on Friday, it might be a good time to consider its latest position on Myanmar in light of its past decisions.

It was this time three years ago, as Myanmar’s military continued to brutally crack down on opponents to its rule despite agreeing to an ASEAN-brokered “consensus” to end the violence, that the regional bloc decided that only “non-political” representatives of the then newly installed junta could attend its high-level meetings.

Since then, however, the regime has sent its senior officials to more than 500 ASEAN meetings at various levels, Myanmar Now has found. This includes more than 20 ministerial-level meetings on a wide range of issues, from tourism, digital. . .

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