Malaysia’s PM Anwar urges Thailand to step up on Myanmar crisis

AFP :
Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim asked Thailand on Thursday to play a bigger role in bringing stability to coup-hit Myanmar, as diplomatic efforts to bring peace there flounder.
Anwar held his first bilateral meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha since the former won office late last year.
The Thai government has faced international criticism for maintaining normalised ties with Myanmar’s junta and for downplaying alleged atrocities in its neighbour since the country was plunged into chaos following a putsch two years ago.
“There’s very little we can do except to continue this so-called constructive engagement with the Myanmar junta,” Anwar told reporters.
“But I think you are placed, prime minister, in a better position to express many of our concerns.”
Thousands of the mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have risked their lives on perilous boat journeys in an attempt to reach Malaysia or Indonesia in recent years.