India, Japan urge Myanmar to end violence and return to democracy

Expressing concern over the situation in Myanmar, India and Japan called for an immediate cessation of violence throughout Myanmar and a return to the path of democracy.

Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi reiterated their stance on Myanmar and in a joint press statement on Saturday called for the release of all political detainees.

"They reaffirmed their support for ASEAN efforts to seek a solution in Myanmar and welcomed Cambodia's active engagement as ASEAN chair to break the deadlock. They called on Myanmar to urgently implement ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus, the Joint statement said.

Both the Prime Ministers expressed their support to the efforts of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in breaking the ongoing political deadlock in the country between the civilian representatives and the military junta.

"They reaffirmed their support for ASEAN efforts to seek a solution in Myanmar and welcomed Cambodia's active engagement as ASEAN chair to break the deadlock. They called on Myanmar to urgently implement ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus."

The ASEAN's five-point consensus was reached last year and stressed dialogue, humanitarian assistance and an end to violence.

The Myanmar military junta took control of the country following a coup on February 1 last year.

Myanmar's junta has carried out a brutal nationwide crackdown to suppress those opposing military rule. The junta's systematic and pervasive abuses, including mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had said in a statement on Friday.

Since the coup, security forces have killed at least 1,600 people and detained more than 12,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Over 500,000 people have been internally displaced since the coup, while tens of thousands have fled as refugees to Thailand and India, the HRW report had further said citing United Nations refugee agency, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) data.

The Indian and Japanese Prime Ministers addressed a host of issues in the elaborate joint statement including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, maritime access in the Indo-Pacific, especially the South China sea, bilateral economic partnership and sustainable growth in the post-COVID world.