Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (Adi WEDA / POOL / AFP)
ASEAN foreign ministers, winding up their meeting in Jakarta, could not agree on the wording of their joint communique, concerning the current situation in Myanmar, according to an informed ASEAN source.
The issuance of the joint communique, which was supposed to at the end of their meeting on Wednesday, was postponed as the ASEAN chair, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, refused to acknowledge formally the outcome of Thailand’s diplomatic efforts to re-engage the State Administrative Council (SAC).
Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told his ASEAN colleagues during the meeting that, during his recent visit to Myanmar, he had a meeting with the country’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Don said that the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate supported a dialogue without preconditions to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Thailand proposed to include in the segment concerning the situation in Myanmar of the joint communique its efforts to jump start the peace process in the crisis-hit country. As of the time of writing, negotiations continue among senior officials, according to the source.