ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Myanmar Leader Criticizes Five-Point Consensus, Accuses ASEAN of ‘Discrimination’

Marking his 100th day as president, Min Aung Hlaing told parliament that his administration would pursue its own “solution” to the country’s conflict.

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing addresses a joint session of parliament in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, July 31, 2026.

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing on Friday criticized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s Five-Point Consensus conflict resolution plan, accusing member states of “discriminating” against the country.

The remarks came during a speech to a joint session of parliament marking the first 100 days since the former military chief, who led the 2021 military coup, took office at the head of a military-backed civilian administration.

“The government noted that although some ASEAN member states had, over the past five years, adopted positions and practices that it regarded as discriminatory towards Myanmar, Myanmar had exercised patience and continued to cooperate in accordance with its responsibilities as an ASEAN member state,” Min Aung Hlaing said, according to a transcript of his speech published by the Myanmar News Agency.

The Five-Point Consensus was agreed at a special ASEAN summit in Jakarta in April 2021, just over two months after the military seized power in a coup. Min Aung Hlaing attended the meeting, where ASEAN leaders agreed on five points, including the appointment of a special envoy, an immediate end to violence, access to humanitarian aid, and dialogue among “all parties” to the country’s conflict.

The military junta has done little to implement the most important points of the Consensus, instead choosing to defeat by force the groups opposing military rule, which his regime has characterized as “terrorists.” This prompted the remaining ASEAN member states to bar it from the bloc’s summits in late 2021, a bar which remains in place.

In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing argued further that the Five-Point Consensus was “not the consensus of all ASEAN member states” and that it “was only the statement of the then ASEAN chair, Brunei.” (This remark, reported by Myanmar Now, did not appear in the Myanmar News Agency transcript.)

“The government further stated that it would respond to any discriminatory actions that are not constructive on a case-by-case basis, as necessary,” he added.

This echoed the argument made by Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week, when it declared that the Consensus “was attached as an annex” to a statement by the ASEAN chair, “without prior notification and circulation of a draft” to member states. It was therefore “released without reaching a consensus among........

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