Some officials said on Saturday that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's meeting with Myanmar junta chief and their joint statement issued afterward may cause friction between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN member states ahead of the group's first meeting of foreign ministers this year.
In a joint statement with the prime minister of Cambodia, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said he had extended a ceasefire with all armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar through the end of this year. The ceasefire was due to end at the end of February.
The junta chief said he will assure a special ASEAN envoy to Myanmar that he can meet with all parties involved in the country's political turmoil, including the armed ethnic minority groups.
Some officials from ASEAN countries told Kyodo News there was nothing essential in the statement and expressed doubts about the junta chief's pledges, saying that the result of the meeting could divide the 10 member group, which plans to hold its foreign ministers meeting on January 18 and 19.
Ong Keng Yong, a former ASEAN secretary-general, said the statement was full of words but nothing substantive to resolve the current political crisis in Myanmar.
Cambodia's strategy for the visit by Hun Sen is getting a fig leaf to allow Phnom Penh to invite Myanmar's foreign minister to attend ASEAN's retreat on January 18 and 19, he said.
Last month, Hun Sen said the leaders and ministers of the junta should be allowed to attend ASEAN meetings, even though the group has excluded them since October because of the five-point consensus made at ASEAN's special summit in April, which mentioned a call for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar and the sending of a special envoy to meet with all parties concerned in the country.
A senior official from another ASEAN country, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said the joint statement was just the same language, or even weaker or misdirected as Cambodia made concessions to Myanmar.
The statement said that the implementation of the five-point consensus should be complementary to the junta's policy called a Five Point Roadmap that includes a promise of free and fair multiparty democratic elections and handing over state duties to the winning political party in accordance with democratic standards.
The military government has alleged fraud in the November 2020 election that gave the National League for Democracy party led by detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi a landslide victory.
The official said that it is a major concession to mention the SAC Five Point Road map, as other ASEAN statements don't endorse that as the people of Myanmar reject it, as the junta seized power after the February 2021 coup.
While some officials point to a positive aspect of the meeting between Cambodia and Myanmar by emphasising the importance of keeping the windows of communication open with the junta, such ASEAN members as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are likely to be cautious about the contents of the joint statement and expect Cambodia not to invite the junta chief and political figures from Myanmar to its meetings.
The members of the ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.