JAKARTA: Myanmar has ceded its turn to chair the Southeast Asian regional bloc, an official confirmed on Tuesday, after the group agreed that an existing but widely criticised peace plan will continue to guide its response to the bloody conflict there.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has faced criticism for its failure to get Myanmar’s ruling military to make progress on a five-point peace consensus agreed to shortly after it seized power in a 2021 coup.
Despite scepticism over its effectiveness, ASEAN agreed on Tuesday that the peace plan would continue to guide its approach to Myanmar’s political crisis. “The Philippines will take over the ASEAN chairmanship for 2026,” ASEAN secretary general Kao Kim Hourn told Reuters after the first day of the group’s annual summit in Jakarta.