The United States and Thailand are co-chairing a regional military summit, and the military that overthrew the government of Myanmar two years ago has been invited to attend.
On top of “table top” exercises, the five-day ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Maritime Security is scheduled to begin on February 20.
The invitation was revealed on Monday by Myanmar Now, an independent online publication that specializes in Myanmar. Leaked documents, according to Myanmar Now, show that the theoretical drills were intended to address search and rescue, piracy, and the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people.
The US Department of Defense spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners, informed Myanmar Now that ASEAN protocol had been followed in inviting the Myanmar military.
According to Meiners, “ASEAN member nations decide who attends ASEAN forums.”
The meeting will feature delegates from conversation partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the US in addition to the ten ASEAN countries.
In light of the ruling generals’ failure to carry out a strategy that was supposed to put an end to the carnage started by the February 1, 2021 coup and foster dialogue, ASEAN has grappled with how to approach Myanmar.
After two years of bloodshed, some member countries are calling on ASEAN to engage with the National Unity Government (NUG), which was established by the elected politicians the generals ousted when they seized power. The association has banned senior representatives of the Myanmar military from attending its main summits.
There were expectations that Indonesia, which replaced Cambodia as the rotating presidency for 2023, would be more aggressive with Myanmar.
In November, Joko Widodo, the president of NUG, called for the ban on the generals to be extended outside of the major ASEAN summits. Jakarta has favored engagement with NUG.
By August of this year, the military, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, plans to hold elections.
Following a string of covert trials, Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation’s elected leader and most well-liked politician, was given a sentence of more than 30 years in prison.
Under a former military government, Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997.
