Australia’s Wong presses Myanmar generals to change tack ahead of Laos summits

Australia’s foreign minister urged Myanmar’s military rulers on Saturday to take a different path and end an intensifying civil war, as top diplomats of world powers gathered in Laos ahead of two summits seeking to tackle key global issues.
Penny Wong said Australia was deeply concerned about the conflict in Myanmar since the generals seized power in a 2021 coup and urged them to abide by their commitment to follow a five-point consensus peace plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“We see the instability, the insecurity, the deaths, the pain that is being caused by the conflict,” Wong told reporters ahead of Saturday’s East Asia Summit and security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum, attended by Russia, the United States, China, Japan, Britain and others.
The conflict pits Myanmar’s well-equipped military against a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebel groups and an armed resistance movement that has been gaining ground and testing the junta’s ability to govern.