Myanmar Complains of Being Isolated by ASEAN

The Myanmar government has complained about discriminatory treatment that isolates the country from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc. This grievance was voiced after the ASEAN summit held last week, which blacklisted Myanmar’s post-coup leadership.

ASEAN, comprising 11 countries, as reported by AFP on Monday (11/5/2026), has excluded Myanmar from summits since the country’s military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 and detained the democracy icon, sparking a civil war.

After five years of leading the military government, Myanmar’s junta held highly restricted elections last month that excluded Suu Kyi’s party.

The elections resulted in junta leader Min Aung Hlaing taking over as civilian president after resigning from his position as Myanmar’s supreme military commander.

At the ASEAN summit held in the Philippines last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr complained that there has been “no progress at all in Myanmar”.

In a statement, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry claimed the opposite, asserting that “positive developments in Myanmar have been well recognised by most ASEAN member states”.

“However, it appears that some member states continue to uphold restrictions, discriminatory actions, and the exclusion of the Myanmar government from equal representation,” the Myanmar Foreign Ministry stated.

At the ASEAN summit in the Philippines, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Myanmar is not yet ready to sit at the conference table because “atrocities against their own citizens are still occurring”.

Several countries, including Indonesia and Singapore—which will hold the rotating ASEAN chairmanship next year—are widely believed to agree with Malaysia’s view.

However, the Myanmar Foreign Ministry emphasised that “unconstructive engagement with Myanmar’s new government” would “ignore the true will of the Myanmar people, who have exercised their democratic rights”.

“Over the past five years, despite facing unfair treatment arising from the positions of some ASEAN member states, Myanmar has been patient,” the Myanmar Foreign Ministry added in its statement.

Although not naming specific countries, the Myanmar Foreign Ministry accused some nations of “interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs through criticism and pressure”.

According to analysts, ASEAN is experiencing a collapse in consensus regarding Myanmar, with growing frustration over the lack of progress in the bloc’s peace plan to end the war in the country.

Some countries, such as Thailand, congratulated Min Aung Hlaing upon his inauguration as Myanmar’s President. Other countries remained indifferent to Min’s inauguration following elections widely criticised by democracy watchdogs.