Asean cautiously optimistic of progress on Myanmar, SCS conflicts

China's increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea and the escalating violence in Myanmar topped the agenda of Southeast Asian diplomats at their meeting in Laos yesterday, with the Laotian foreign minister expressing guarded optimism that progress could be made this year on both acrimonious issues.

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Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith told reporters that Thailand was moving ahead with plans to provide more humanitarian assistance to Myanmar, where more than 2.6 million people have been displaced by the civil war.

Saleumxay said it was a good sign that the military leaders who seized control of Myanmar in February 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi had, for the first time, sent a high-level representative to attend the meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers in the historic city of Luang Prabang in Laos.