Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong received a video call from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on 14 January 2022.
Prime Minister Hun Sen briefed Prime Minister Lee on Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship priorities and agenda for 2022. Prime Minister Lee reaffirmed Singapore’s support for Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and thanked Prime Minister Hun Sen for the briefing on his recent visit to Myanmar.
Prime Minister Lee noted that there had not been any significant progress in the implementation of ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus since its adoption on 24 April 2021 at a meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta between ASEAN Leaders and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Prime Minister Lee expressed his view that until there was significant progress in implementing the Five-Point Consensus, ASEAN should maintain its decision reached at the 38th and 39thASEAN Summits of inviting a non-political representative from Myanmar to ASEAN meetings. Any discussion to revise the ASEAN Leaders’ decision had to be based on new facts. Prime Minister Lee emphasised the need for the ASEAN Chair to engage all parties concerned, including the Tatmadaw and the National League for Democracy (NLD). The Tatmadaw had proposed a ceasefire with Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) only but the call for a cessation of violence in the Five-Point Consensus referred also, and indeed primarily, to violence against the Tatmadaw’s political opponents and civilians. Prime Minister Lee noted that just days after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit, there had been further attacks by the Tatmadaw against its political opponents, and additional prison sentences imposed on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Prime Minister Hun Sen made some proposals on how to coordinate a ceasefire in Myanmar and deliver humanitarian assistance to the Myanmar people. Prime Minister Lee said that he was unsure what role ASEAN or the ASEAN Chair’s Special Envoy on Myanmar could play in coordinating a ceasefire since we did not even have access to all parties. However, Singapore had no in-principle objections to such a mechanism if it could foster an end to violence. Prime Minister Lee said that there was a need for progress in the delivery of humanitarian assistance with the involvement of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) and with the cooperation of the Tatmadaw. Prime Minister Lee agreed that these proposals raised by the ASEAN Chair should be further discussed among the ASEAN Foreign Ministers and Senior Officials.
Prime Minister Lee hoped that Cambodia would consider his views and those of other ASEAN Leaders. He reaffirmed Singapore’s commitment to work with Cambodia and other ASEAN Member States on the full implementation of ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus and relevant ASEAN decisions.
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
15 JANUARY 2022