Southeast Asian foreign ministers have placed emphasis again on a durable solution of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.
Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations also called for the speedy and safe return of displaced people to Myanmar following an agreement signed between Yangon and Bangladesh in November.
They also stressed the need to find a “comprehensive and durable solution” to address the root causes of the conflict but acknowledged there is no quick fix, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said after the informal talks, the ministers’ first meeting under Singapore’s chairmanship.
“ASEAN is fully committed to assist the Myanmar government in humanitarian response but ultimately, what we need is a long-term political solution,” he said.
The Muslim Rohingya minority has been fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for decades. Renewed violence last year drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the disputed area into islands, installing military facilities and equipment in the area.
China, Taiwan and four ASEAN member states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — have overlapping claims in the waterway, which straddles busy international sea lanes and potentially has vast undersea deposits of oil and gas.
“We want to ensure that all of us continue to invest in our infrastructure and our people, enhance our connectivity and ultimately to secure peace and prosperity” in the region, he added.
ASEAN was set up in 1967 as an anti-communist bulwark but attention has shifted in the last two decades toward greater economic integration, reports The Japan Times.