Bombay Durpun - Myanmar junta FM briefs neighbours on election plans: Thai FM

The Myanmar military seized power in 2021, making unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud in 2020 polls won resoundingly by the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

It has since unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent and as fighting ravages swathes of the country has repeatedly delayed plans for fresh polls that critics say will be neither free nor fair.

Junta-appointed foreign minister Than Swe met diplomats from China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand for an "informal consultation", Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told reporters.

Myanmar "outlined very broadly that progress is being made towards an election" in 2025, he said, adding that no details, including an exact date, were discussed.

The talks in Bangkok were hosted by Thai foreign minister Maris Sangiampongsa and come a day ahead of informal talks on Myanmar hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.

ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, has made little progress towards resolving the Myanmar crisis.

Thailand, which regularly hosts thousands of people fleeing the conflict, has held its own bilateral talks with Myanmar's junta leaders.

In 2023 its then foreign minister also said he had met briefly with Suu Kyi, who has been in military custody since the coup.

The junta has several times pushed back a timetable for fresh polls as it struggles to crush widespread opposition to its rule from ethnic rebel groups and pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces".

In 2022, the junta-stacked election commission announced that Suu Kyi's NLD would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law.

China, the junta's most important ally, has grown increasingly alarmed at the conflict on its doorstep and in October called for a "reconciliation led by all people of Myanmar".

Earlier this year, its foreign minister said Beijing backed the junta's plans for polls.

The United States has said any elections under the junta would be a "sham", while analysts say polls would be targeted by the military's opponents and spark further bloodshed.

F.Varghese--BD