Myanmar military will not attend Asia-Europe Meeting, sources say

Myanmar’s military has reportedly notified Cambodia that it will not attend the 13th ASEM Summit, where leaders from Asia and Europe meet (virtually) for two days, saying it would only send a technical team to watch the talks.

The meeting, which starts today and ends tomorrow, will focus on the interaction of four main ideas: multilateralism, growth, sustainable development, and prosperity of the nations.

It looks like the Myanmar junta is sulking at ASEAN as this is the third time it has not participated in an Asean-related summit in recent weeks, following the Asean Summit hosted by Brunei last month and an Asean-China Commemorative Summit hosted by China on Monday.

Since Myanmar’s military seized control of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February and violently suppressed protesters, international worries have grown.

ASEAN has evicted Myanmar’s junta commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing over post-coup political turmoil, stating that only a “nonpolitical representative” could be sent to the ASEM since he failed to engage with their efforts to foster talks between all sides in the dispute.

ASEM is made up of 30 European Union countries and 21 Asian countries that together account for 60% of the world’s population, 60% of global GDP, and 60% of worldwide trade.

SOURCE: Kyoto News