FREE ASEAN | FREE MYANMAR | JAKARTA- Indonesia welcomes Cambodia’s decision not to invite Myanmar military junta

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi speaks on behalf of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit on Nov. 12, 2020. (Twitter/@Menlu_RI)

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Indonesia has welcomed Cambodia’s recent announcement that it will resume the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ retreat later this month without a top diplomat representing Myanmar.

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The meeting had been postponed due to a disagreement over whether to invite the military junta.

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As the current chair of ASEAN, Cambodia said on Thursday that the decision to invite only a non-political representative from Myanmar made ahead of the ASEAN Summit last year would apply to the upcoming ASEAN retreat, now slated for Feb. 16 and 17.

 

 

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“This is in line with Indonesia’s position of not involving political elements from Myanmar in the meeting,”

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Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told reporters on Thursday.

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The retreat, ASEAN’s first high-level meeting of the year, was originally scheduled to be held on Jan 18 and 19, but an invitation to Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin to participate had led to protests from several member states, especially Indonesia and Malaysia.

 

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Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi and Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said they could not attend the retreat in Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia, which would have been ASEAN’s first in-person meeting since the start of pandemic, aside from the emergency leaders meeting for the Myanmar crisis held in Jakarta last year.

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Retno’s chief of staff, Achmad Rizal Purnama, said now that Cambodia had confirmed a military-appointed minister would not participate, Retno would attend the retreat.

 

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“We have to respect the existing decision that as long as there is no progress in the five-point consensus, Myanmar will be represented at a non-political level,” he said.

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He added that in addition to issuing a national statement condemning the military’s unconstitutional seizure of power on Feb. 1 2021, Indonesia had also pushed for ASEAN to issue a statement calling for the full implementation of the five-point consensus.

 

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The five-point consensus is a set of demands ASEAN leaders gave Myanmar coup maker Min Aung Hlaing during their meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta in April last year, which include the cessation of violence and mediation involving all parties to the conflict facilitated by a special envoy.

 

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ASEAN’s statement on Wednesday also announced that member states welcomed the appointment of Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as the new special envoy to Myanmar while continuing to call on military authorities to allow him to meet with all stakeholders within the country.

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Meanwhile, Indonesia also supported closer cooperation between ASEAN and the United Nations in responding to the Myanmar crisis.

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Earlier this week, the UN Security Council issued a statement expressing its concerns over the continuing state of emergency imposed by Myanmar’s military regime since launching a coup last year.

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Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta   ●
Fri, February 4, 2022

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Indonesia welcomes Cambodia’s decision not to invite Myanmar military junta – Asia and Pacific – The Jakarta Post”.

Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/world/2022/02/04/indonesia-welcomes-cambodias-decision-not-to-invite-myanmar-military-junta.html.