
BANGKOK -- ASEAN should pursue working-level talks with Myanmar's military government to resolve the political crisis, argued Yohei Sasakawa, Japan's special envoy for national reconciliation in the troubled Southeast Asian country.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations "needs to establish more frequent working-level contacts" with the military, said Sasakawa, who spoke with Nikkei here Monday. He suggested that ASEAN set up an office in Myanmar toward this end. Sasakawa is chairman of the philanthropic Nippon Foundation.