Myanmar junta official invited to ASEAN events co-chaired by US

A Myanmar junta official has been invited to participate in two upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) events co-chaired by the United States, despite the country’s official stance against recognising the regime’s legitimacy, Myanmar Now has learned. The first event of the ARF—a platform for discussion and cooperation around regional security issues—is the Inter-Sessional Meeting on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament scheduled to take place in Hawaii from April 29 to May 1. It will be co-chaired by the US, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The second ARF event will focus on maritime security and will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 6, co-chaired by the US, India, and Indonesia. Both meetings bring together all 27 ARF participants, including Myanmar. A US State Department spokesperson confirmed to Myanmar Now that the junta had been invited to both meetings by the event’s ASEAN co-chairs, citing the bloc’s inclusivity protocol that invitations should be sent to all ARF participants. “Receiving representatives of the junta on US land can be assumed as legitimising the junta in a way,” Moe Zaw Oo, deputy foreign minister in Myanmar’s publicly mandated National Unity Government, said. “The US should be careful about the act of legitimising the junta. No excuse can be accepted for such an act.” When asked by Myanmar Now who the junta would send as its representative, the US State Department spokesperson said that they could not speak to the Myanmar military’s plans for its officials. The individual was also unable to confirm if the junta official would be attending in person in Hawaii, or if the US government intends to issue a visa for the representative. In response to Myanmar’s February 2021 coup and the military violence that followed, the US has imposed a series of sanctions targeting members of the junta and entities that support it. However, the US has previously co-chaired regional ASEAN events attended by junta representatives, including a table-top exercise on maritime security for military officials in February 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. ASEAN pursued a “Five-Point Consensus” to end ongoing violence in Myanmar following the coup. However, the regional bloc has been widely criticised for its lack of progress towards resolving the crisis in the country. Some ASEAN members have favoured barring junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and his foreign ministers from leaders’ summits and meetings. Indonesian President Joko Widodo—last year’s ASEAN chair—proposed in 2022 that the Myanmar military be banned beyond major summits for failing to abide by ASEAN’s consensus, but did not follow through and the junta has continued to represent Myanmar at most meetings. Laos, the 2024 ASEAN Chair, has continued to invite the junta to meetings as the representative of Myanmar and, for the first time in two years, the junta sent a “non-political” representative to the bloc’s meeting of foreign ministers in Luang Prabang in January. New Zealand has also been under fire after it emerged that the country is hosting a face-to-face ASEAN meeting of mid-level officials on April 18 and 19 in Wellington and that the junta has been invited. The announcement led to protests and open letters from New Zealand and Myanmar civil society groups demanding that the government bar the junta from entering the country. This week, immigration officials confirmed to New Zealand’s parliament that they had received one visa application for the Myanmar delegation and were looking to the foreign ministry for advice regarding a final decision.

Myanmar junta official invited to ASEAN events co-chaired by US

The meetings, bringing together ASEAN Regional Forum participants, will take place in Hawaii and Indonesia

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