Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s check out to Myanmar this month was not planned to approve authenticity to the military junta, which toppled the chosen federal government almost a year back, according to the minister delegate connected to the premier’s workplace.
Instead, the journey was focused on solving the crisis, Kao Kim Hourn informed CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
“The situation in Myanmar requires that we need to keep the dialogue open. And of course, our prime minister’s visit was to focus on the ceasefire and violence on the ground,” he stated, including the go to “by no means is to lend legitimacy to the Myanmar military regime.”
The military junta ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup last February, stimulating strong clashes in between her fans and army.
“Since the February 1 military coup, Burma is facing a grave political, economic, human rights, and humanitarian crisis due to a brutal crackdown by a powerful military that acts with impunity,” the U.S. State Department stated in a June declaration in 2015.
Hun Sen gone to Myanmar in early January for talks with its military rulers — the very first by a head of federal government to the Southeast Asian country because the coup.
Cambodia is the existing brand-new chair of the local 10- member bloc– the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
ASEAN has actually been having a hard time to get Myanmar’s military federal government to stay with a five-point agreement strategy consented to in April, that includes ending the violence.
Kim Hourn stated Cambodia “backs all the five points” and as the existing chair of ASEAN, intends to “implement the five-point consensus” strategy.
He stated the prime minister’s go to was primarily focused on collaborating a ceasefire, providing humanitarian help to the Myanmar individuals, and leading the way for ASEAN’s unique envoy on Myanmar to have access to all celebrations worried.
When asked if Cambodia would want to engage and hold talks with ousted leader Suu Kyi, Kim Hourn stated “indeed.” The 76- year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate was just recently sentenced to 4 more years in jail by the military junta.
An anti-coup protester holds up a placard including de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on March 2, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar.
Hkun Lat|Getty Images News|Getty Images
“The role of chair is to engage with everyone,” he stated, including the objective is to get ASEAN’s unique envoy “to go to Myanmar as early as possible.”
Last week, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong informed his Cambodian equivalent Hun Sen throughout a video call that there has actually not been “any significant progress” in the application of ASEAN’s five-point strategy.
According to a declaration by the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were even more attacks versus political challengers, and “additional prison sentences were imposed on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi” days after Hun Sen’s check out to Myanmar.
