ASEAN Opting Out of Rakhine Efforts
When ASEAN foreign ministers last met in Bangkok on July 31 and discussed the Rakhine crisis, their conclusions reflected the lowest common denominator of the bloc's membership. Two years after the enforced mass exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, ASEAN is at risk of becoming irrelevant to the search for solutions.
ASEAN has been providing humanitarian and development assistance to Rakhine state, but its reluctance to recognize the underlying causes of the crisis gives Myanmar the opportunity to shield behind a shaky ASEAN consensus. It thus may be making matters worse.
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