The Philippines, the rotating chair of ASEAN, said the ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar, Ma. Theresa Lazaro, will lead a humanitarian mission to the country starting this Wednesday.
The two-day visit by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro will include a trip to Myanmar’s Shan State and meetings in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. However, details of the meetings have not yet been provided, and Myanmar’s military government has not yet confirmed the visit. In August, the military government said there was no longer a need for the special envoy’s visit.
Lazaro previously requested a face-to-face meeting with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since she was ousted in the 2021 military coup. The country has since descended into a continuing civil war, in which about 10,000 people have been killed and more than 3.5 million displaced.
Since then, Myanmar’s senior leaders have remained barred from ASEAN’s high-level summits over their failure to implement the ASEAN-led peace plan.
However, several ASEAN members have recently welcomed military leader Min Aung Hlaing, now Myanmar’s president, on official visits, including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Laos. By: Rithy
