Despite Australia’s official stance against recognising the Myanmar regime’s legitimacy, junta officials are expected to participate in a forum co-hosted by Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in March.
Jordon Steele-John, a member of the Australian Senate, inquired at a foreign affairs committee hearing on Wednesday whether the government’s diplomats had raised concerns with their ASEAN counterparts about the likely presence of junta officials at the 35th ASEAN-Australia Forum, scheduled for March 16-17 in Laos.
Michelle Chan, the diplomat who will represent Australia at the forum, said she did not know whether a Myanmar junta representative would be present at the forum and that Australia was not in a position to decide who would participate.
“I think that is a matter for ASEAN, Senator—who attends ASEAN meetings, and who represents ASEAN members,” said Chan, who served as Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2008 to 2011.
Steele-John’s questions highlighted what he sees as inconsistencies between Australia’s stance on the junta’s illegitimacy and co-hosting a meeting attended by junta officials.
“As co-host, Australia should insist that the representative of the Myanmar military junta is not allowed to attend the meeting and has their invitation to attend the forum revoked. Instead, that invitation should be offered to the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s only legitimate, representative government,” he told Myanmar Now when reached for comment.
Australia has declined to recognise the Myanmar military regime as a legitimate government, and withdrew from a meeting of ASEAN defence ministers in June 2022 over concerns about the junta’s political agenda and ongoing violence in Myanmar.
Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign affairs minister, announced earlier this month that Australia would impose sanctions against junta officials for the first time since the military seized power two years ago. She said sanctions would remain in place until there was clear progress toward the restoration of democracy in Myanmar.
However, in response to Steele-John’s questions, Wong joined Chan in defending the choice to go ahead with co-hosting the ASEAN-Australia forum.
“ASEAN is central to our security. So we are very clear about our position on the coup… But it is in our national interest that Ms. Chan as our ASEAN ambassador, that ministers, including I, engage with our counterparts within ASEAN,” she said.
Both senior officials also added that any participation by Myanmar regime officials would not be at a “political level.”
“My recollection is Myanmar was represented at official level, not political level,” Wong said, referring to an ASEAN meeting she had attended the previous year.
“Yes, I think the difference is between a political-level representation and an official,” Chan added.
Some ASEAN members have favoured restricting Myanmar’s representation in the regional bloc’s meetings to hold the regime accountable for flouting measures prescribed by its “Five-Point Consensus” to end ongoing violence in Myanmar following the coup in February 2021.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo–the chair of ASEAN since January–proposed last year that the Myanmar military be banned beyond major summits for failing to abide by ASEAN’s consensus.
Indonesian authorities, however, have also distinguished between political and “non-political” representation of junta officials at international meetings. Addressing questions about whether the Indonesian government had cancelled a junta minister’s invitation to an ASEAN tourism forum, an Indonesian official claimed this month that only a non-political representative had been invited.
Democracy and human rights advocates have denounced political support for the Myanmar military regime—including foreign governments’ ongoing diplomatic relations with the junta or other recognition of its legitimacy—arguing that it serves to enable its abuses against the people of Myanmar.
