JAKARTA – Asean must push for the full implementation of its peace plan for Myanmar and maintain its stand that the country is not represented by its junta's political leaders at the bloc's high-level meetings, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday (Sept 5). 'Otherwise, our credibility will be undermined, and so will Asean centrality. And this would...
JAKARTA – Asean must push for the full implementation of its peace plan for Myanmar and maintain its stand that the country is not represented by its junta's political leaders at the bloc's high-level meetings, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday .
The plan called for a dialogue among all parties, an immediate halt to violence in Myanmar, the appointment of an Asean special envoy to facilitate mediation, humanitarian assistance and a visit by an Asean delegation to Myanmar to meet all concerned parties. But he stressed that the security, economic and humanitarian situation remains dire, and violence continues.
PM Lee said that the way Asean handles the current climate of geopolitical and economic uncertainty will influence how much control it has over its future. In order for the bloc to continue coming out stronger in these challenging times, it needs to factor in Asean centrality in all that it does. "We will each have our own national interests and positions on the geopolitical challenges, but we still have to work towards common landing points. And this inevitably will involve all of us with some give and take," he said.
He had said then that efforts to develop new growth areas for the bloc must speed up, regardless of good progress thus far, and called on leaders of the bloc to strengthen Asean as an institution to bolster its resilience.
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