Foreign ministers at the recent ASEAN meeting, held from January 28 to 29, failed to agree on recognising Myanmar’s election, underscoring an impasse within the regional bloc over how to address the junta-led polls and elements of the Five-Point Consensus.
“Singapore is principled enough to not unsee what happened, but we have to be pragmatic enough that there have been shifts on the ground (since the Myanmar coup),” said SIIA Chairman Prof. Simon Tay in a Straits Times article discussing ASEAN’s divisions over the Myanmar issue.
“The part that is uncomfortable – if you are trying to hold ASEAN together – is if you give up on the (Five-Point) consensus, and you have no new consensus,” he said. “If there is a new consensus, we can be part of creating and moving to that new consensus.”
Read the Straits Times article (15 February 2026) here:
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/to-recognise-or-not-behind-aseans-lack-of-consensus-on-the-myanmar-polls
