Thailand welcomes US-Myanmar engagement, expects Asean talks on country’s future

[LISBON] Thailand welcomes US engagement with Myanmar and expects discussions at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ November summit in Manila on how to proceed with the member barred since the 2021 coup, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told Reuters on Friday (Oct 24).

The United States and Myanmar’s military-backed government held talks in Tokyo two weeks ago, their second meeting in a month as Washington steps up re-engagement with the generals it shunned after the coup.

“We don’t want to see Myanmar isolated, we don’t want Myanmar to be an arena for geopolitical rivalry ... so the US engagement is something that we welcome,” he said.

Engagement “does not mean legitimising the regime,” but aims to encourage peaceful conflict resolution and reconciliation with the opposition, Phuangketkeow, who is also deputy prime minister, added.

He said there was “some shift in Asean’s position,” citing Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s recent visits to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, but said it was unclear whether the Manila summit would address restoring Myanmar’s full representation.

“It’s good that we’re going to have a very substantive, very extensive, and very in-depth discussion on how to proceed on Myanmar,” he said.

He also said Thailand and Cambodia could resolve their longstanding land and maritime boundary disputes within 12 to 18 months despite limited progress.

“It is possible, everything is possible,” he said, cautioning that confidence-building and addressing security concerns along the land border, where clashes have occurred, must come first.

Cambodia launched a conciliation process under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in June to resolve the maritime boundary dispute, after Thailand terminated a 2001 joint development framework in May following deadly border clashes. The first meeting was held about a month ago.

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“Right now, we haven’t achieved, to be very frank, much progress,” he said.

The maritime dispute centres on overlapping claims to about 26,000 sq km in the Gulf of Thailand, believed to hold oil and gas reserves worth around US$300 billion. Thailand wants the boundary defined before discussing resource-sharing, he said.

Thailand-EU free-trade talks are in their final stage and could conclude by year-end if there is mutual political will, he added. REUTERS