ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

ASEAN Foreign Ministers Hold ‘Icebreaker’ Meeting With Myanmar Counterpart

The Southeast Asian bloc reaffirmed its adherence to its Five-Point Consensus initiative, which was last week rejected by Myanmar’s military-dominated parliament.

Foreign ministers and representatives from ASEAN member states take part in an informal discussion with Tin Maung Swe, the foreign minister of Myanmar’s new military-backed civilian government, in Bangkok, Thailand, Jul. 12, 2026.

Myanmar’s foreign minister yesterday met with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the first time in five years, in an effort ​to revive a regional peace initiative intended to resolve the country’s civil war.

At a summit in May, the 11-nation bloc agreed to an informal meeting with Tin Maung Swe, the foreign minister of Myanmar’s new military-backed civilian government, which took office in April. Since then, the new government has launched a campaign to normalize its relationships with its major neighbors, including ASEAN.

The bloc has excluded Myanmar from the bloc’s summits since late 2021, due to its lack of implementation of the Five-Point Consensus, ASEAN’s roadmap for the management of the country’s conflict. The Consensus, which was agreed at a special ASEAN meeting in April 2021, calls for an immediate cessation of violence and inclusive dialogue involving “all parties” to the conflict.

Yesterday’s meeting involved both an informal meeting between Tin Maung Swe and his ASEAN counterparts, the first to take place since the 2021 coup, and a second session involving just the latter. The meeting was attended by foreign ministers from every member state except Cambodia and Malaysia, which was represented by Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Tan Sri Amran Mohamed Zin.

Speaking to reporters after the meetings, Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said that Tin Maung Swe had given the meeting a “comprehensive briefing” covering the Myanmar military’s peace efforts, the status of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and cooperation against cross-border scam operations, trafficking and drug trafficking.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkaew, whose government brokered yesterday’s meeting and has led the push to bring Myanmar back into the “ASEAN family,” said that Bangkok supported an approach of “calibrated engagement” with Naypyidaw. Sihasak said that ASEAN’s member states reaffirmed their commitment to the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus, but added that “the key issue here is what is the strategy to implement it.”

He added that engagement was a “two-way street,” and said that the Myanmar side “has to reach out as well to address the concerns of ASEAN and the concerns of the international community.” In a separate press interview, he described the meeting as an “icebreaker.”

One of the main issues during the discussions was the status of Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected civilian leader who has removed in the 2021 coup and has been in custody ever since. In May, the new........

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