Myanmar conflict centre stage as Southeast Asian leaders hold summit

Southeast Asian leaders meeting in Indonesia will on Wednesday wrangle over an escalating crisis in military-ruled Myanmar, with patience in the ASEAN bloc wearing thin as its junta shows no intent to end hostilities and pursue a peace plan.
The summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) takes place as Myanmar’s military intensifies attacks and air strikes on resistance forces and ethnic minority rebels as it tries to consolidate power ahead of a planned election.
It also comes days after a unknown assailants shot at a convoy of regional diplomats and aid workers in Myanmar bringing supplies to some of the more than 1 million people displaced by conflict since a 2021 coup.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the current ASEAN chair, called on the 10-country bloc to speak up and speak as one on its most challenging issues.
The prime minister of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony bordering Indonesia that is seeking ASEAN membership, stressed the need to restore order in Myanmar.