According to authorities speaking to AFP, a number of Southeast Asian air force commanders will skip a meeting being hosted by Myanmar’s military junta. This will further the junta’s isolation in the region as it fights to stifle opposition.
The 10-nation bloc’s top air force commanders meet annually for the ASEAN Air Chiefs Conference to discuss defense cooperation, countering extremism, and disaster relief.
At least three ASEAN nations have informed AFP they will not send their top officials to the meeting, which the current chair Myanmar is scheduled to hold next week.
The junta has been charged with war crimes over airstrikes used by its jets, which were primarily made in China and Russia, to support ground forces combating opponents of its 2021 coup.
The summit will be presided over by Htun Aung, the head of its air force, who has received approval from both the US and UK.
According to officials speaking to AFP, the air force commanders of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia would not be present at the summit.
According to a spokeswoman, the head of the Malaysian air force will not attend, and the Philippine commander will communicate with his counterpart through video message rather than in person.
Air Force spokesperson Agung Sasongkojati told AFP that Indonesia’s air force chief “will not be attending and won’t be sending anyone to represent him either”.
At a conference this week, ASEAN accused the junta of neglecting a peace plan to end the conflict and of targeting civilians in the raging conflict it started with its coup.
Retno Marsudi, the foreign minister of Indonesia, claimed that the five-point plan established with the junta more than two years ago had made “no significant progress.”
That evaluation was derided as “one-sided” by the junta.
As a result of the junta’s failure to negotiate with the plan’s opponents and attend high-level meetings, ASEAN has banned its representatives.
Soeng Samnang, the chief of the Cambodian air force, declined to say if he would go, and the defense ministry could not be reached for comment.
Requests for comment from the air forces of Singapore, Brunei, and Vietnam went unanswered.
But Thailand’s air force chief will make the trip to neighbouring Myanmar, a defence ministry official told AFP.
While ASEAN has halted high-level meetings with Myanmar’s generals, Thailand has held its own bilateral talks with the junta and deposed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in recent months, further dividing the bloc.
Activist group Justice for Myanmar said in a statement that ASEAN holding the air force meeting would “undermine its own commitments to resolve the crisis in Myanmar”.
