Myanmar's military government will dispatch a senior official to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers meeting in Laos later this week, diplomatic sources told Kyodo News on Tuesday.
It will be the third consecutive attendance of a senior official from the junta of Myanmar, an ASEAN member, at the regional grouping's meeting in Laos, the current chair, following a foreign ministers meeting in January and a defense ministers meeting in March.
The junta, which ousted the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup, had previously boycotted ASEAN ministerial meetings after other members decided in October 2021 to allow only a non-political representative from Myanmar to attend.
The senior official will be Aung Kyaw Moe, permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry, the sources said. He will attend the meeting in Vientiane on Thursday and talks involving ASEAN partner nations' foreign ministers, including Saturday's ASEAN Regional Forum, which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend.
North Korea will not dispatch its foreign minister to the ARF talks, one of the few multilateral events involving the country, according to the sources, with its ambassador to Laos to attend instead.
The protracted conflict between the military and opposition forces in Myanmar will be high on the agenda for Thursday's meeting as ASEAN member countries follow up on implementing a five-point consensus reached between Myanmar and other ASEAN members in April 2021.
Little progress has been made on the consensus aimed at ending violence against the junta's political opponents.
The sources said ASEAN will seek greater involvement from its partner nations in providing humanitarian assistance to Myanmar during the talks.
Three million people have been displaced in Myanmar, and 18.6 million are in need of humanitarian aid amid the conflict, according to the United Nations.
Apart from the Myanmar issue, the ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to discuss Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where several nationals from ASEAN member countries have been held hostage, the sources said.
The South China Sea, where territorial claims of some ASEAN countries overlap with those of China, will also be on the agenda. China and the regional bloc have been working together on drafting a code of conduct to prevent confrontations in the area.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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