Daniel J. Kritenbrink On the Secretary’s Upcoming Travel to Indonesia for the ASEAN Ministerial
- CRPH Norway
- Jul 12, 2023
- 2 min read
By Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink told about Myanmar at special briefing on the Secretary’s upcoming travel to Indonesia for the ASEAN Ministerial as follows:
Secretary Blinken will visit Indonesia July 13 and 14. Secretary Blinken will be in Jakarta to participate in the U.S.-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, the 13th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the 30th Annual ASEAN Regional Forum.
At each meeting, Secretary Blinken will address economic cooperation, the fight against climate change, the ongoing crisis in Burma, and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Secretary and foreign minister will also discuss ways that our two nations can address the crisis in Burma, build our economic ties through our APEC host year and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, and further strengthen our robust people-to-people connections.
On the issue of Burma, one of the key issues discussed at the ASEAN-related meetings both, I think, in ASEAN’s own ministerials and then in our engagement with ASEAN and, of course, in the context of the EAS ministerial and the ARF.
And look, our approach is going to continue to be what it has from the very beginning, following the really unfortunate coup and its violent and bloody aftermath. We continue to support the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus. We support ASEAN leadership on this issue. But we’ll also continue to make clear the depth and the strength of America’s concern as well.
As far as a way forward, we do expect our friends and partners in ASEAN to stick to their Five-Point Consensus, to continue to downgrade Myanmar’s representation in the ASEAN ministerials, and we also look forward to finding ways to increase pressure on the regime to compel the regime to end its violence and return to a path of democracy. And again, ASEAN and its member states will be central to that effort, and as I’ve stated, this will be a prominent part of the agenda in the week ahead.
Posted on 7 July 2023
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