KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah said he hopes the peace talks set to take place in Myanmar will go according to plan.
Speaking in his first press conference as foreign minister, Saifuddin said he had yet to meet the special envoy to Myanmar, but will do so soon.
“Malaysia has played an important role in the establishment of this special envoy. I have been briefed on the situation and am confident this special envoy will be able to play his role.
“I will be meeting him as soon as possible, but this is just a continuation of the previous minister’s work. I hope that we will get some positive results from this and help the envoy execute and realise his objectives.”
On August 7, three months after Asean agreed on the Five-Point Consensus, it announced the appointment of a special envoy to facilitate the mediation of the dialogue process in Myanmar.
The 10-member bloc named Brunei’s second Foreign Minister Erywan Mohd Yusof as the special envoy who will start his work in Myanmar.
Erywan asked to be given full access to all parties in Myanmar after the military coup.
He has been tasked with overseeing humanitarian aid, ending violence in Myanmar and opening dialogue between the military rulers and the opposition, whose protests and civil disobedience campaign have been met with violence.
Meanwhile, Saifuddin also expressed his hopes that the Asean-China Single Draft Code of Conduct in the South China Sea Negotiating Text (SDNT) is drafted soon.
SDNY will serve as the basis for the adoption of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to prevent other nations from encroaching or conducting illegal activities in open seas.
“If we can get the single text code of conduct done, it will be a milestone as until now we are still struggling to get it done.
“Once we have this, it will be easier to sit down and negotiate with all parties; so I hope this COC (code of conduct) will materialise soon,” he added.
