Hanoi has said that no hasty solutions should be taken to deal with issues in Myanmar, the country that suffers a military coup for a year.

Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer. Photo: MOFA, ADB

Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son stressed the need to have a “comprehensive, gradual approach without haste” on Myanmar issues when he talked with Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer on January 14.

The people of Myanmar should be put at the center of all solutions, Son said, noting the importance of ending violence and boosting humanitarian assistance to the people in this country.

He called on the international community and the United Nations to facilitate dialogues and reconciliation in Myanmar as well the ASEAN Centrality in solving Myanmar issues.

The Vietnamese foreign minister affirmed that Vietnam and ASEAN continue to keep an eye on Myanmar and support the ASEAN member state in the spirit of respecting its independence, sovereignty, and integrity of the country.

He pledged to support the cooperation between the UN’s Special Envoy and ASEAN’s Special Envoy to Myanmar in the time to come.

According to the United Nations, the people of Myanmar are facing an unprecedented political, socioeconomic, human rights and humanitarian crisis since the military takeover in February 2021 and a severe Covid-19 third wave. 

The situation has been worsening since the beginning of the year, when the military took over the country, ousting the democratically elected Government.

According to a UN Humanitarian Needs Overview published in December 2021 by the UN Office for the Cooperation of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the turmoil is projected to have driven almost half the population into poverty heading into 2022, wiping out the impressive gains made since 2005.

It is now estimated that 14 out of 15 states and regions in Myanmar are within the critical threshold for acute malnutrition.

For the next year, the analysis projects that 14.4 million people will need aid in some form, approximately a quarter of the population. The number includes 6.9 million men, 7.5 million women, and five million children. 

ASEAN has made efforts for reconciliation in Myanmar. In April 2021, the 10-member bloc reached a “Five-Point Consensus” to make a positive and constructive role in facilitating a peaceful solution in the interest of the people of Myanmar and their livelihoods.