Jakarta. ASEAN’s ministers will assemble in Thailand later this month to find ways to cool down the Myanmar crisis that is about to enter its fourth year, according to a spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Roy Soemirat said Thursday that ASEAN’s chair Laos had invited the group’s members for a Myanmar coup meeting in Thailand on Dec. 20. 

The talks will start with an informal meeting between members of the ASEAN troika alliance: Indonesia, Laos, and Malaysia. These three countries will assess the latest developments, and look for solutions to nudge the convince camps in Myanmar into fulfilling the pledges under the so-called “five-point consensus” peace plan. The troika is an informal mechanism between ASEAN’s previous, current, and succeeding chairs that the Southeast Asian bloc has established to deal with the Myanmar crisis. 

“So the troika will have a meeting among themselves first on what’s happening in Myanmar. After that, the other ASEAN members will join them in another round of discussion,” Roy told reporters, commenting on the upcoming Thailand meeting.

Roy, however, could not confirm whether Foreign Minister Sugiono would be the one to represent Indonesia, saying that the latter would head to Thailand if there is no conflicting schedule. He added: “But Indonesia’s stance on Myanmar has not changed. We want to help Myanmar to return to normalcy.”

Roy also claimed to not know the details of the meetings. This includes whether the ministers would raise the Myanmar junta’s plans to host a general election in 2025, as well as Thailand’s support for a population census that the military regime would use to compile the voter lists.

“I still have no idea what they will discuss at the Thailand meeting. But I would not be surprised if they will touch on [the elections],” Roy said.

ASEAN to this day has still struggled to move the needle on the Myanmar coup. 

In 2021, Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hosted his ASEAN counterparts and Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Jakarta about two months after the Myanmar military seized power in a coup. They all agreed to a five-point consensus that called for a constructive dialogue among all parties.

During its tenure as ASEAN chair in 2023, Indonesia adopted what it called no-megaphone diplomacy as it quietly nudged rivaling sides into having an inclusive dialogue. But at the end of its chairmanship, Jakarta admitted that Myanmar was still far from having such peace talks. The situation has also yet to witness meaningful progress under ASEAN’s subsequent chair Laos.

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