United Nations:
UN chief Antonio Guterres asked to postpone a virtual meeting with Southeast Asian ministers at the last minute to keep away from signaling recognition of Myanmar’s junta by becoming in the similar on line area as the military’s envoy, UN diplomats stated.
The meeting involving the UN secretary-common and foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – like the junta’s foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin – had been due to take spot last Friday.
But the day prior to, Guterres asked ASEAN to postpone the meeting “until a time when it can be held in a mutually agreeable format, in view of the ongoing urgent international and regional issues”, according to an Oct. 8 note from ASEAN chair Brunei – seen by Reuters – notifying members of the delay.
UN diplomats, speaking on situation of anonymity, stated Guterres does not want to get ahead of a selection by UN member states on who will sit in Myanmar’s seat at the world body right after rival claims had been made by the junta and the existing U.N. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, appointed by the elected government.
The junta seized energy in a February coup, detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected government leaders. United Nations credentials give weight to a government.
Guterres’ reluctance to be seen at the similar meeting at the junta envoy comes as ASEAN foreign ministers are due to separately meet on Friday to talk about excluding junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from an upcoming summit as stress builds on the ruling military to comply with an agreed peace roadmap.
ASEAN agreed on a 5-point consensus with Min Aung Hlaing in April, but many members of the bloc have criticised the junta’s failure to implement it. The junta has also ruled out permitting a regional envoy, Brunei’s second foreign affairs minister, Erywan Yusof, to meet Suu Kyi.
While UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters last Friday that the secretary-common had requested that his meeting with ASEAN ministers be postponed and that talks would continue on the format, he did not clarify why Guterres wanted the delay.
Kyaw Moe Tun warned against Guterres taking component in a meeting that integrated an envoy from Myanmar’s military, telling Reuters it could “destroy the Myanmar people’s high hopes and expectations from the UN, which we always think of our hope for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar.”
A U.N. committee, which involves Russia, China and the United States, is due to meet next month to think about the competing credential applications and till a selection is made Kyaw Moe Tun remains in the seat. The committee could defer a selection and leave Kyaw Moe Tun as Myanmar’s envoy.
Myanmar’s junta has place forward military veteran Aung Thurein to be its UN envoy, even though Kyaw Moe Tun asked to renew his UN accreditation, regardless of being the target of a plot to kill or injure him more than his opposition to the coup.
The UN committee considers the credentials of all 193-members and submits a report for General Assembly approval prior to the finish of the year. The committee and General Assembly normally operate by consensus on credentials, diplomats stated.
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