JAKARTA: Diplomatic talks on Myanmar’s civil war will be held in Jakarta ahead of a regional summit convening next week, a senior diplomat in Indonesia told AFP on Thursday (Oct 3).
The talks on Friday and Saturday will involve representatives from “Indonesia, ASEAN, the European Union and the United Nations” and members of anti-junta groups, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Myanmar’s ruling military was not expected to take part, the diplomat said.
The discussion on the bloody conflict raging in Myanmar since a 2021 coup is set to take place just before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathers in Laos for an Oct 6 to Oct 11 summit.
The conflict in Myanmar is set to feature prominently on the 10-member bloc’s agenda.
ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, has led several diplomatic pushes to resolve the crisis but has made little progress.
Myanmar’s military leaders have been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings.
The topic has divided the bloc at previous meetings, with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines calling for tougher action against coup leaders.
Thailand has held its own bilateral talks with the generals as well as with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The latest diplomatic push comes as Myanmar’s military reels from battlefield defeats to ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” (PDFs) that rose up to oppose the military’s coup.
More than three million people have been displaced after more than three years of war, according to the United Nations.
