BANGKOK -- Thailand has launched a high-stakes initiative to break the diplomatic deadlock over Myanmar's spiraling crisis, with a two-track plan to convene senior officials of neighboring countries and ASEAN foreign ministers in separate "informal" meetings in Bangkok on Thursday and Friday.
The meetings -- the first to be hosted by Thailand and the second by Laos, ASEAN's outgoing chair -- break the bloc's convention of leaving such initiatives to the chair. Nearly four years after the Feb. 1 2021 military takeover in Myanmar, the move also reflects Thailand's eagerness to reengage the military regime amid moves by China and India to bolster it ahead of its planned elections in late 2025.
