Former ASEAN Foreign Ministers and UN Officials Call for Abandoning Five-Point Consensus, Recognizing NUG as Legitimate Government; Philippine Senator Urges International Court Action

On May 8, 2026, a coalition of former ASEAN foreign ministers and senior United Nations officials formally called on ASEAN to abandon the Five-Point Consensus — the 2021 regional agreement that has been widely criticized for failing to create any accountability mechanism for the Myanmar junta's violence — and instead recognize the NUG's acting president (Duwa Lashi La) and ousted civilian president U Win Myint as the legitimate government of Myanmar. The same date, a Philippine senator publicly called on the Philippines (as ASEAN Chair in 2026) to pursue decisive action against Myanmar's junta through international courts and the UN Security Council, and demanded that the junta allow an ASEAN Special Envoy meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi. The international push follows the May 7 call from former foreign ministers and UN experts for recognition of the NUG acting president (see May 7 event), creating a two-day diplomatic escalation. The Five-Point Consensus (adopted April 2021) required a ceasefire, inclusive dialogue, a humanitarian corridor, a special ASEAN envoy, and elections — none of which the SAC has implemented. Five years into the coup, with 96,000+ total conflict deaths and 3.6 million IDPs, the calls represent the most explicit multilateral demand yet for ASEAN to abandon its strategy of engagement with the junta. China and India have both deepened their engagement with Min Aung Hlaing's new presidential government since the April 10, 2026 inauguration, making coordinated ASEAN pressure less likely in practice but reflecting growing frustration among Western-aligned ASEAN members.