<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Myanmar's junta on Wednesday criticised an ASEAN statement condemning military violence and the targeting of civilians as "one-sided", a day after it said it would not take up its upcoming chairmanship of the bloc.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myanmar has been in turmoil since the 2021 military coup that sparked mass protests and a bloody military crackdown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has led fruitless attempts to defuse the crisis, with a five-point peace plan agreed with the generals largely moribund and the junta refusing to engage with its opponents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a summit on Tuesday, ASEAN leaders called on the military to "de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Host Indonesia said there had been "no significant progress" on the plan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myanmar slammed the review as "not objective" and "one-sided", in a statement published Wednesday in the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It called on ASEAN to "strictly adhere to the provisions and fundamental principles of the ASEAN Charter, especially non-interference in the internal affairs of the member states."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Internationally isolated Myanmar will not take up its scheduled chairmanship of ASEAN in 2026, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Philippines will chair instead, as the bloc wrestles with how to engage with the junta, whose leaders are banned from high-level ASEAN meetings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun confirmed to AFP that Myanmar would not be chair in 2026, without providing details.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Myanmar previously withdrew from the ASEAN chairmanship in 2006 over a potential boycott by the United States, the European Union and other international powers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The chair went to the Philippines that year. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>