Efforts to end two major conflicts in India’s neighbourhood have become intense. To the east, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has produced a diplomatic opening with Myanmar’s military leadership over the weekend. The Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s army is known, took charge of the nation in a coup in early February and has cracked down hard on protestors since.
To the west, a peace summit on Afghanistan, seeking to end decades of conflict there, was also scheduled to take place in Istanbul over the weekend. It had to be postponed given the Taliban’s refusal to join any such peace conference until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan. Although the US and NATO have agreed to leave Afghanistan before September 11, the Taliban has refused to budge.
The Taliban wants to denude Kabul and its international supporters of the last bit of their declining military leverage before the talks begin. Scepticism about the Taliban’s willingness for peace has been high ever since the Trump Administration in the US began engaging with it in the summer of 2018.
Political forces in Myanmar worry that the ASEAN initiative will only legitimise the coup and give the military leadership time to consolidate. Similar concerns were expressed when the US and the international community began to negotiate with the Taliban over the heads of the elected government in Kabul. Asian Peace
