Myanmar issue dominates Southeast Asian meeting. As Myanmar’s military regime refuses to cease hostilities and pursue a peace plan, ASEAN leaders convening in Indonesia will discuss the issue on Wednesday.

As it consolidates control before an election, Myanmar’s military escalates assaults and air strikes on resistance forces and ethnic minority insurgents during the ASEAN conference.

It comes days after unknown gunmen fired at a convoy of regional diplomats and relief workers in Myanmar transporting supplies to some of the more than 1 million people displaced by fighting since a 2021 coup.

The ASEAN head, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, urged the 10-nation organization to speak out on its biggest challenges.

“Will ASEAN only be silent or will ASEAN be able to become the driver or peace or growth?” he questioned before a meeting to address regional tensions and a South China Sea code of conduct.

“I am convinced that we all believe ASEAN can do it only if there’s unity.”

East Timor’s prime minister, pursuing ASEAN membership, highlighted the need to restore stability in Myanmar.

“We also have the obligation to push ASEAN and the international community to create peace in Myanmar,” Taur Matan Ruak stated.

ASEAN, which has a non-interference policy, has been increasingly forceful with Myanmar’s junta over its inability to follow a five-point peace “consensus” that its senior general agreed to with ASEAN a few months after his coup triggered turmoil.

The generals cannot attend high-level ASEAN meetings unless they implement the peace plan, which includes ending hostilities, commencing talks, and enabling humanitarian access.

Indonesia has covertly engaged Myanmar’s military, shadow government, and armed ethnic groups to start peace negotiations.

“ASEAN is doing as much as it can really because when you are there on the ground it’s not that easy,” Philippine foreign minister Enrique Manalo said.

Some want ASEAN to be tougher with Myanmar’s regime.

“To leave the seat empty at ASEAN summits is actually their comfort zone, they don’t have to be held accountable,” said former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa.

“Excluding the junta is just one step.”

He called the Myanmar dispute an “unprecedented challenge” to the bloc’s cohesiveness and claimed it operated with only nine of its ten members.