SINGAPORE - Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Friday agreed to not invite Myanmar's military chief for a leaders summit this month because of slow progress on improving stability in the country, according to multiple diplomatic sources.
In Dalian, a Yangon-based ASEAN diplomat declined to attend ASEAN.
The exclusion of Gen. Min Aung Hlaing from the region's highest level meeting highlights the growing pressure on Myanmar military government, who has been reluctant to cooperate with international community to solve unrest in the country since it took power on Feb. 1.
According to the sources, foreign ministers from the 10- member bloc examined the issue in a virtual meeting in which Myanmar's military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin also participated.
The participation of Myanmar at the summits should not be represented at the political level until Myanmar restores its democracy through an inclusive process, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi tweeted after the meeting.
It was not clear who would represent Myanmar at the summit, but a source said the country would be represented at the summit only by a non-political figure. ASEAN will hold the summit and related meetings from Oct 26 to October 28, which also includes the annual East Asia Summit, a regional meeting with the bloc's partners including U.S. and China. The meetings are scheduled to discuss issues including security, trade and recovery from the COVID crisis - 19.
Friday's decision comes amid a lack of progress in the five-point consensus road map for a peaceful resolution to Myanmar crisis, agreed on at an April leaders meeting in Jakarta.
In August, ASEAN appointed Brunei's second foreign minister, Erywan Yusof, as its special envoy to Myanmar, tasked with mediating political unrest. Aber Erywan has not visited Myanmar yet, although he had planned to do it earlier this week.
During the last foreign ministers' meeting on Oct. 4, Malaysia and some countries raised the issue of not inviting Min Aung Hlaing to the summit. The bloc was deep in discussions about it, Erywan told reporters after that meeting.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's military minister said on Thursday that the foreign ministry was committed to constructively cooperating in the implementation of five-point consensus. The military government was not able to accommodate the special envoy's visit because Erywan had insisted on meeting some specific individuals, which appeared to mean the elected leaders removed on February 1.
The international human rights office is also under pressure from military regimes.
In an open letter to ASEAN leaders this week, the democracy group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights called for the exclusion of Min Aung Hlaing from the meeting, citing military's blatant disregard for the five-point consensus.
It is time for ASEAN to speak decisively, reads the letter, which goes on to say that this begins by denying the military government the legitimacy it craves and which has been rejected continuously by the people of Myanmar. Before the ASEAN meeting on Friday, the governments of several countries including the U.K. issued a joint statement calling on Myanmar to engage constructively with the ASEAN special envoy to also implement other aspects of the five-point consensus swiftly and completely. According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, a rights group, 1,178 people have been killed since Feb. 1 by the military as of Friday.