00:00Newly elected Myanmar President Min Aoleng has signaled his intent to normalize ties with ASEAN.
00:07But what would that look like in practice and how can the bloc navigate such complex relations with the new
00:14regime?
00:15Dr. Motuzar from ICS Use of Israel Institute weighs in.
00:19We can't really sweep the past five years and the use of lethal force against civilian communities across the country.
00:27We can't sweep all of that under the carpet and turn a new page in that sense.
00:32So I think to reiterate, I think it's important to continue to have that principled, calibrated approach.
00:39I mentioned that Myanmar as a member state has not been out of ASEAN.
00:44Myanmar representatives have actually been participating in all of the other sectors of cooperation,
00:52at ministerial levels. Even in the political sectors, senior officials attend those meetings,
00:58even if political principles were restricted due to non-compliance of the five-point consensus.
01:04So I think what we need to do here, of course, is look to see whether the words in this
01:08inauguration speech
01:09are matched with action and then consider whether these actions merit ASEAN's consideration of matching action with action.
01:20Following frustration over its implementation, Mo also stressed the need to recalibrate the bloc's approach
01:27to the five-point consensus to ensure it yield tangible results.
01:32There are various political and ethnic stakeholders whose views are important
01:37and who have valid concerns regarding the military's continued entrenched dominant role in politics in Myanmar.
01:45So I think moving the needle, recalibrating, and there is, of course, discussion now within ASEAN
01:52about recalibrating the five-point consensus. I think recalibration will require specifics.
01:59There are now the broad priorities that we look at as a framework.
02:03But then what does each broad priority entail in terms of, you know, whether or not it has been addressed?
02:11Take even, for example, cessation of violence. What does that mean?
02:15Does the Myanmar regime's mention that they are convening peace talks?
02:22Does that tick the box for cessation of violence?
02:24We have seen various ceasefires, partial ceasefires being negotiated or mediated,
02:31and we've also seen them being broken.
02:33And of course, you know, we see airstrikes continuing.
02:35So I think the kind of specifics that we get out of this recalibration will help ASEAN kind of really,
02:43you know, keep focused on where the needle is and how to kind of move the needle.
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