Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks during a briefing session with editors-in-chief and the media at the Seri Perdana Complex in Putrajaya, Malaysia, May 21, 2025.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says that the time is right for talks between Myanmar’s military junta and its opponents, as he prepares to chair a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking to reporters in Putrajaya yesterday, Anwar said that his recent talks with the junta and the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) had resulted in “remarkable progress,” and that his government had engaged positively with “all parties” to the conflict, the Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported.
“In Myanmar, for example, we are able to engage with all parties, number one. Number two, we are able to secure a ceasefire. And number three, we are able to ensure that all humanitarian aid can go to any sub-region, regardless of which group controls it,” Anwar said.
Anwar added that he could now see the potential for direct talks between the junta and the NUG, something that has not occurred since the military’s seizure of power in February 2021. “I think it is time for them to talk,” he added. “The people of Myanmar must decide for themselves.”
The full extent of Anwar’s diplomacy on the Myanmar conflict remains unclear, but he controversially met with junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Bangkok last month, securing the extension of a ceasefire to allow post-earthquake recovery. (However, the military has continued its attacks on resistance groups, including deadly air strikes.) The following day, Anwar held a video call with the NUG’s Prime Minister Mahn Winn Khaing Thann. Both discussions ostensibly dealt with the provision of humanitarian aid in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit central Myanmar on March 28, although issues such as humanitarian access to quake regions have direct implications for the country’s civil war, which is now into its fifth year.
In its report on Anwar’s comments, Reuters cited “two sources with direct knowledge” of the situation as saying that both sides were aware of the Malaysian government’s engagements with the other. The sources said that this “underscore[ed] the willingness of Min Aung Hlaing to engage in peace efforts despite branding the government-in-exile as ‘terrorist’.” The junta has made no official announcement of its willingness to engage in peace talks.
Anwar’s optimistic forecast comes ahead of the ASEAN Summit and related meetings, which will begin tomorrow in the Malaysian capital and run until May 27. In addition to the flagship 46th ASEAN Summit on May 26, this will reportedly also include a sideline meeting of the ASEAN Troika on Myanmar, a new mechanism that brings together the present, past (Laos), and upcoming (Philippines) chairs of the 10-nation bloc.
As always, the run-up to the summit has been accompanied by calls for the Southeast Asian bloc to reassess its approach to the conflict in Myanmar. The bloc’s main peace plan, the Five-Point Consensus, was formulated in April 2021, and calls for an immediate cessation of violence and inclusive dialogue involving “all parties” to the conflict. But the Consensus has failed to make much progress, stymied by the junta’s obduracy and unwillingness to adhere to its most important points.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) praised Anwar for directly engaging with the NUG, something that past ASEAN chairs had been reluctant to do. But it added that the Malaysian leader’s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing had “forced an ASEAN reset on Myanmar” and that Anwar should spearhead the creation of a new Five-Point Consensus. This would be based on “inclusive talks between the NUG, Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs) and other armed groups including the junta to secure an immediate end to all attacks, particularly airstrikes, and a total countrywide ceasefire supported and enforced by ASEAN and the UN Security Council and monitored by international observers.”
According to SAC-M, this would then be followed by the impartial provision of humanitarian assistance, the holding of “genuine and credible nationwide elections,” and the “negotiation of a new federal democratic constitution for Myanmar in accordance with the will and interests of the people.”
Whether such a process remains possible at the current juncture remains unclear. The NUG has long claimed that it is open to dialogue, provided that the military accepts certain conditions. In an interview with The Diplomat in July 2022, the NUG’s Acting President Duwa Lashi La said that “any dialogue must fulfill the will and interests of the people.”
He added, “This obviously requires certain conditions. So far the junta has refused to end its attacks on civilians, permit humanitarian access to those in need, or leave politics and accept the federal democratic constitution.”
In comments to Reuters, NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt similarly said that the military would need to accept six conditions before talks could proceed. This included forming a new federal democratic union, accepting the removal of the military from politics, and the creation of a transitional justice framework.
These conditions, which envision the permanent extrication of the military from Myanmar’s political and economic life, are something that the generals are very unlikely to accept. The real question is whether either side is willing to compromise on the zero-sum calculus that has come to characterize the conflict over the past four years. Without flexibility on either side, the prospect of constructive dialogue remains unlikely.
