Is Suu Kyi alive? ASEAN must seek proof before as it engages with Myanmar

Every year, the foreign ministers of the 11 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) get together to talk regional business.

These meetings tend to attract some big names from outside the region, too. At this year’s meeting this week in Manila, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will all attend.

Each power has its own reason to be there. The US wants to stay visible in a region that China has been courting. China wants to reassure its neighbours who are worried about its behaviour in the South China Sea, where run-ins with Philippine boats are now almost routine. And Russia wants to show it still has a seat at the table in the Asia-Pacific as its war in Ukraine grinds on.

Tellingly, Rubio and Lavrov have no plans to meet each other. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, will also be in Manila, but no meetings with Rubio have been announced.

As in years past, one notable ASEAN diplomat has not been invited: Myanmar’s foreign minister.

However, the bloc is under pressure to try to resolve the five-year-long civil war in Myanmar. And last week, ASEAN foreign ministers took the controversial step of meeting face-to-face with their Myanmar counterpart, Tin Maung Swe, in...

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