Southeast Asian leaders seek Myanmar peace progress, trade strategies

Southeast Asia's leaders will try again when they meet on Monday to bring Myanmar's military government into talks to end a protracted civil war, and will seek ways to offset global trade uncertainty from US President Donald Trump's tariff threats.

After weekend ministerial meetings, government leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to continue to discuss proposals on Myanmar at a summit on Monday and Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since its military overthrew the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, triggering pro-democracy protests that morphed into a widening rebellion that has taken over swathes of the country.

Malaysia, this year's ASEAN chair, says it will continue speaking separately to the junta and to Myanmar's armed opposition groups to try to foster direct talks between the warring sides.

"These negotiations need to be done many times so that an understanding can be built between each side," Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told reporters after two meetings on the Myanmar conflict on Saturday, adding that he plans to visit Myanmar next month.

The 10-member bloc's foreign ministers agreed to discuss a proposal for a permanent ASEAN envoy on Myanmar, Mohamad said. "We want to explore that," he said. "It's a matter of who is going to be the permanent special envoy, maybe on a three-year term."

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has been excluded from the ASEAN summit since 2021 in response to the coup. Thailand's foreign minister said last week that at the summit his country would propose broader international engagement with Myanmar.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's closed-door meeting with Min Aung Hlaing in the Thai capital Bangkok last month, followed by online talks with the shadow National Unity Government a day later, has revived hope of dialogues for peace.

The junta is pushing to hold an election later this year, which critics have widely derided as a sham to keep the military in power through proxies.

ASEAN has so far struggled to implement a "Five-Point Consensus" peace plan unveiled months after the coup, and it has yet to discuss a common position on the junta's election plan.

TARIFF TREMORS

ASEAN leaders are expected to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday, along with counterparts from Middle East countries.

The talks come amid widespread global market volatility and slowing economic growth sparked by Trump's threats of US trade tariffs. Six Southeast Asian countries targeted by his administration face much bigger-than-expected tariffs of between 32% and 49% in July, unless negotiations with Washington on reductions succeed.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said ahead of the summit that ASEAN leaders would discuss and compare responses to the tariffs.

"Concerning trade and specifically the tariff schedule imposed by the United States... we must find a way to find consensus amongst the disparate situations that the different member states are operating under," Marcos said.

Marty Natalegawa, an Indonesian former foreign minister, said ASEAN should identify key principles to rally around to guide each member country's negotiations with the US.

"Otherwise, there could be a risk of a lose-lose cycle in our own region," he said.

Also up for discussion at the summit are disputes in the South China Sea, a conduit for about $3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade.

China claims sovereignty over most of the waterway and has been involved in heated confrontations with ASEAN member the Philippines.

Vietnam and Malaysia have also protested over the conduct of Chinese vessels in their exclusive economic zones, which Beijing says are operating lawfully in its waters.