Thailand to host two regional meetings focused on Myanmar this week

BANGKOK - Thailand said on Monday it will host two regional meetings on Myanmar this week, with at least one to have representatives of the junta, as the Malaysian Prime Minister said efforts were being made to bring Myanmar back to the fore of ASEAN.

Thai foreign minister Maris Sangiampongsa will hold the separate consultations on Dec 19 and 20, after Thailand in October offered to host informal talks to find a way out of the crisis that has gripped Myanmar since a 2021 military coup.

Representatives from Myanmar will take part in Thursday's meeting, which Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said would be an informal consultation on border security and transnational crime.

Representatives from China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand, which all share borders with Myanmar, will also attend.

On Friday, there will be a foreign minister-level meeting on Myanmar for "interested members" of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including discussing ASEAN's "Five Point Consensus" plan for peace in the country, Nikorndej said.

It is not clear if Myanmar will have any representatives at Friday's meeting, and if so at what level.

Since the coup, ASEAN has snubbed Myanmar's military leaders by only inviting non-political representatives from the country to regional meetings of leaders and foreign ministers.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who will chair ASEAN in 2025, said on Monday that he was committed to implementing ASEAN's peace plan, which has made scant progress since its unveiling in April 2021 soon after the coup.

"We are taking measures through dialogues informally at different levels to ensure Myanmar participates, and bring back Myanmar to the fore of ASEAN," Anwar said at a joint press conference in Kuala Lumpur with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, without elaborating further.

Indonesia has said its foreign minister will attend the Dec 20 meeting.

Chaos has prevailed in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup sparked a nationwide rebellion and a civil war that has ravaged the nation of 55 million.

At a summit in October, ASEAN called for "an immediate cessation" of violence and the creation of a "conducive environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and inclusive national dialogue" that is "Myanmar-owned and -led".

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in BANGKOK and Ashley Tang in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by John Mair)