UN Security Council members fail to agree on Myanmar text

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council failed late on Friday to agree on a statement aimed at pushing Myanmar’s junta to take steps toward a peaceful solution to the country’s ongoing crisis, diplomats said.

China and the United Kingdom, which drafted the text, blamed each other for the failure of the day-long negotiations, which followed a closed-door Council meeting on Myanmar in the morning.

For London, China was asking "too much," which led to the collapse of the negotiations.

A spokeswoman for China’s UN delegation told AFP that at the end of the day, there was only a "slight difference" to reach an agreement that was "not impossible to overcome."

The original text proposed that the Security Council express deep concern over "limited progress" in implementing a five-point plan on ending the crisis, which was set out more than a year ago by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

It also called for action to implement the roadmap.

China proposed using the terms "slow" progress rather than "limited," the Chinese delegation said.

"Our wording was factual but less condescending" and "it’s a real shame" that there was no agreement, the spokeswoman added.

The rest of the text, seen by AFP, reflected the Security Council’s concern about the continuing violence and humanitarian difficulties in the country.

At the Council meeting, the Asean envoy for Myanmar, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sokhonn Prak, and the UN envoy, Noeleen Heyzer, provided an update on the situation.