Bangkok (VNA) - Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on October 7 that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must play a key role in ending the crisis in Myanmar.
Speaking at an event in Bangkok ahead of the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and related meetings set to take place in Laos from October 8-11, the leader underscored the importance of the ten-member bloc’s role in resolving the Myanmar crisis as swiftly as possible.
She noted that Thailand will work with Malaysia, the ASEAN Chair for next year, to employ diplomatic measures to address the issue.
In April 2021, ASEAN introduced a Five-Point Consensus to address the crisis in Myanmar. Recently, at the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Laos in July, member states agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of the implementation of the consensus and to submit recommendations at the upcoming summits.
The joint communiqué from the meeting reaffirmed that the consensus remains ASEAN’s guiding framework for resolving the Myanmar crisis, while calling on all involved parties to take concrete actions to end violence immediately, exercise maximum restraint, ensure the safety of civilians, and create a conducive environment for humanitarian aid and dialogue./.
