Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's erstwhile senior general who seized power in February 2021, is on the move. After ramming through shoddy elections with patchy electoral participation last December and January, he now dons civilian garb as post-election president and was received on official visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in June. With a similar state visit to Laos in early July and prospectively to Thailand in August, Min Aung Hlaing is on a diplomatic roll that is putting pressure on Asean to re-admit him to leaders' meetings and to re-engage Myanmar broadly sooner rather than later.
Yet giving in to Min Aung Hlaing too much and too soon puts Asean's credibility at risk and its vaunted central role in promoting regional peace and security in question. Lest it is overlooked, Min Aung Hlaing has taken Asean for a ride before. After staging the coup and overthrowing a democratically elected government under Aung San Suu Kyi more than five years ago, the general signed on to Asean's so-called Five-Point Consensus (5PC) under the Bruneian chair in April 2021. The 5PC called for the cessation of violence, inclusive dialogue, humanitarian assistance and an Asean special envoy who would visit the country and mediate among conflict parties.
