MANILA (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said during a visit to the Philippines that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must prove it is “relevant” in helping to resolve the crisis in Myanmar.
In a pre-recorded interview with Philippine news channel ANC aired on Friday, Anwar said that ASEAN, which is leading diplomatic efforts to bring peace, needed to be more assertive and noted that his country was shouldering 200,000 displaced people from Myanmar.
“We can’t see this as a purely internal issue, so I have appealed to friends in ASEAN to say, look we have to be tougher,” Anwar said. “If necessary engage with the armed forces of this country because sometimes the military junta do not understand the civilian narrative.”
Myanmar has been beset by social, political and economic chaos since its military overthrew an elected government in 2021.
Human rights groups and the United…
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