KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia’s engagement with Myanmar has shown measurable progress on the ongoing conflict there, even if challenges remain unresolved.
“To me, even though it is not complete, that is already a very big success. A beginning. Now we must continue,” he told reporters after the closing of the 47th Asean Summit and Related Summits here.
Also present were Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
Anwar said the diplomatic effort had yielded tangible results.
“Over the past year, after we intervened and engaged in negotiations with them, they have stopped their attacks.
“There were one or two incidents, but not like what we heard two to three years ago, when villages were destroyed, killings occurred, and hundreds of thousands fled.
“That is no longer the case. It is still happening, and we still regret it, but significantly less than a few years ago,” he said.
Anwar said Malaysia had not shifted the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) on Myanmar despite maintaining channels of dialogue with the junta there.
He said his prior meetings with Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing in Bangkok and Beijing, along with discussions held by the foreign minister and his counterpart in Myanmar, demonstrated Malaysia’s readiness to engage without retreating from its stance.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
