MANILA – ASEAN foreign ministers agreed on July 21 to develop benchmarks for measuring progress in Myanmar and began discussing appointing a longer-term special envoy, as the regional grouping sought to strengthen implementation of its long-stalled Five-Point Consensus peace plan.

The proposals, discussed during an extended informal consultation on Myanmar on the sidelines of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, will now be refined by senior officials before going to ASEAN leaders at their November summit, said Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro.

The discussions followed an informal meeting in Bangkok on July 12 that brought together nearly all ASEAN foreign ministers and Myanmar’s foreign minister for the first time since the military seized power in 2021.

In Manila, ministers revisited proposals from the Bangkok meeting, including creating an ASEAN framework to assess progress in Myanmar and exploring a longer-term special envoy instead of rotating the role annually.

“We have tasked the senior officials to really give meat and discuss this carefully because this is an input to the leaders’ meeting in November,” Lazaro, who also serves as the ASEAN chair’s special envoy to Myanmar, told reporters.

She said Brunei had proposed establishing a unit within the ASEAN Secretariat to support the envoy’s work, although issues such as funding and operational arrangements still needed to be resol...