"ASEAN" foreign ministers discuss tensions in the strategic region and send a message to Myanmar's leaders

Jakarta

- The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded their first meeting this year at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Association, which entered its 56th year, carrying with them heavy tasks to confront the bloody situation in Myanmar, two years after the military coup there.

They also discussed strengthening regional stability and security as a necessary condition for advancing economic growth in the region, which is one of the most important centers of economic development in the world.

dialogue rather than conflict

At the opening of the ASEAN conference, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called for ASEAN to contribute to strengthening "strategic trust" instead of "declining trust" between countries regionally, and for "the spirit of partnership to overcome containment."

She noted that more countries that are not core members of ASEAN are applying to join the expanded dialogue partners' forum of ASEAN, and that this confirms the importance, presence and regional influence of ASEAN.

Marsudi stressed the need to invest "the confidence of the international community in ASEAN to continue playing its role as a pillar of stability and regional peace," in an effort to form a regional system that includes everyone in the region.

The 11 ASEAN countries mediate a geographical location between China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula in the northeast, Australia and New Zealand in the south, and India in the west, which gives its location an important strategic dimension in shaping diplomatic and economic relations in the region.

The region of the organization is witnessing regional tension on various levels, most notably the geopolitical and military expansion and the growing economic and investment influence of China in Southeast Asia, in exchange for the United States seeking to restore its presence in the region, and the latest manifestation of this is its obtaining the approval of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos - a day before the start of the meeting. ASEAN Foreign Ministers - to increase the number of military bases in the Philippines from 5 to 9.

This approval is an important military and geopolitical shift that restores to the United States a gradual, prominent and historical presence since its decline in 1992 in the Philippines, despite the intermittent return of the American presence after that, and this step is part of strengthening what is known as the agreement to enhance defense cooperation between Manila and Washington or the alliance between them. It is the most important alliance between the United States and a member of ASEAN.

Rules of Conduct for the South China Sea

In the same regional context, the Indonesian minister said that the consultations on reaching a "code of conduct" in the South China Sea will resume again next March with the participation of ASEAN countries and China, which are the consultations that started talking and deliberating about it since 1992, and what has been achieved until now. Now more like a draft or framework agreement known as the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in 2002.

The consultations on the South China Sea - of which Indonesia calls the southern part the North Natuna Sea - are among the most complex and longest-running regional negotiations in the history of ASEAN, with many differences in legal interpretations and in light of the dispute over sovereignty between China and a number of ASEAN countries.

On the other hand, the United States, and to a lesser extent Japan and even the European Union and Australia, seek to be present in one form or another in the theater of security and stability in the South China Sea, which is part of the broader region that has become known politically and academically as the region between the Indian and Pacific oceans, and each of these parties has visions about the future This area has been talked about by its official in the past few years.

Myanmar.. the most complex file

Despite the absence of Myanmar from the ASEAN meeting, it was strongly present on the agenda of the conference and in the discussion of member states. The meeting urged the need to achieve the five points agreed upon by ASEAN leaders in April 2021 regarding the crisis in Myanmar, which seeks to stop violence and confrontations and deliver aid to civilians. Creating the conditions for a national dialogue involving all parties.

The ASEAN Association had invited Myanmar to participate in the meetings with non-political representatives - other than the political and military leaders ruling the country - but this has not received a response from the ruling military council of Myanmar since the coup that took place in early February 2021.

After the end of the conference, Minister Marsudi affirmed the unified position of the ASEAN countries on Myanmar, noting that the ASEAN countries support Indonesia in its endeavor to resolve the political crisis in Myanmar through the establishment of an office of a special envoy for Myanmar, with the participation of diplomats and military personnel.

Deaths and destruction

Estimates vary regarding the victims of the conflict between the Myanmar army on the one hand and opposition armed groups and armed organizations representing nationalities and minorities on the other, and among those estimates is what was indicated by a report by the "Human Rights Network in Burma" that documented the killing of 3,160 civilians between February 1, 2021. - that is, the day of the coup - until the end of 2022.

In statements to Al-Jazeera Net, Qiao Wen, head of the human rights organization, said, "More than 46,000 homes have been burned or destroyed, and the victims are of various nationalities and Christian, Buddhist and Muslim minorities."

A UN report issued last December indicated that approximately 72,000 Myanmar people fled to neighboring countries since the coup until the end of last year. As for the locally displaced, the United Nations estimates that they have exceeded one million and 140,000 displaced, in addition to 300,000 who were in The number of displaced persons due to previous conflicts.