Malaysia pledges to help Myanmar return to ASEAN — Al Jazeera

Malaysia welcomed Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing in Kuala Lumpur with a red carpet and an honour guard. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he was ready to help return Myanmar to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Al Jazeera reports.

Min Aung Hlaing was invited to Malaysia to discuss the issue of refugees and migrants from Myanmar. According to Ibrahim, Myanmar is ready to take back its citizens at its own expense. About 193,000 Myanmar citizens are in Malaysia, most of them from the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority.

Min Aung Hlaing said that, weather permitting, he would deploy naval ships to repatriate people. At the same time, Myanmar has long refused to recognise the Rohingya as its citizens. A significant part of Rakhine State, where this minority originates from, is controlled by the ethnic armed group, the Arakan Army.

Return to ASEAN

ASEAN had barred Min Aung Hlaing from high-level meetings because his administration refused to implement the bloc’s five-point peace plan. The plan provides for an end to violence and constructive dialogue between the parties to the war.

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Malaysia became the fifth ASEAN state to host Min Aung Hlaing after he assumed the presidency in April. Before that, he visited Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. A spokesperson for Myanmar’s president said Indonesia and Brunei could be the next countries on his itinerary.

Criticism of rapprochement

Researcher Bridget Welsh said that Malaysia’s shift in approach had broken the “dam of resistance” to Myanmar’s military authorities in the region and could grant them international legitimacy. According to monitoring groups, Myanmar’s civil war is in its fifth year, has claimed up to 100,000 lives and forced at least 3.5 million people to leave their homes.

Despite Min Aung Hlaing’s invitation to peace talks with armed groups, fighting continues in Rakhine, Chin, Kachin and Karen states, as well as in the Sagaing region. University of Sydney researcher Sai Kyi Zin Soe noted that the military’s airstrikes have not stopped amid ASEAN’s diplomatic contacts with Myanmar’s authorities.