For the second consecutive year, Myanmar’s junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has been excluded from the upcoming ASEAN summit to be hosted by Cambodia next month.

The Khmer Times reported that this year’s ASEAN Chair Cambodia on Tuesday defended its decision not to invite him because there is no “visible progress” by the junta to implement peace initiatives put forward by the bloc following last year’s February coup.

The military junta leader was also not invited to last year’s summit by Brunei which was the ASEAN chair for the same reason.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Chum Sounry told Khmer Times that only a “non-political representative” from Myanmar and not Aung Hlaing has been invited to attend the summit and related meetings to be held in Phnom Penh from November 10-13 .

“The participation of Myanmar in ASEAN’s high-level meetings has been linked to the progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus,” he said.

“Therefore, Cambodia, as the current ASEAN Chair, has sent a request to the SAC (The State Administration Council) of Myanmar to nominate a non-political representative for the upcoming ASEAN summit and related summits,” he said. “And yet again the SAC has refused to send anyone to the summits.”

Sounry said Cambodia’s efforts in its capacity as the ASEAN Chair in helping Myanmar return to normalcy through the implementation of the 5PC have been appreciated by all the bloc’s members and the international community.

“We have been consistent in our endeavour and we remain optimistic that the situation in Myanmar will be improved so that it can return as an indispensable member of our united ASEAN family again,” he added.