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LISBON — Thailand has welcomed renewed U.S. engagement with Myanmar's military-backed government and expects ASEAN leaders to hold an extensive discussion on Myanmar's political future at their November summit in Manila, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told Reuters on Friday.
The United States and Myanmar's military-backed government held talks in Tokyo earlier this month, their second meeting in a month, as Washington steps up engagement with the generals it shunned after the February 2021 military 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," said Sihasak, who is also deputy prime minister.
Engagement "does not mean legitimizing the regime," he added, saying the aim was to encourage peaceful conflict resolution and reconciliation with the opposition.
Sihasak said ASEAN's position on Myanmar had shown "some shift," citing recent visits by Myanmar's President Min Aung Hlaing to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. It remained unclear whether the Manila summit would address restoring Myanmar's full representation in the bloc: the military authorities have been barred from sending political representatives to high-level ASEAN meetings since the coup, amid concerns over the lack of progress on the bloc's five-point peace plan.
The Thai foreign minister also said Thailand and Cambodia could resolve their longstanding land and maritime boundary disputes within 12 to 18 months, although he acknowledged that little progress had been made so far.