The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' series of meetings got underway in Laos on Wednesday.
On the agenda: How to break the impasse in Myanmar, where fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces is intensifying.

Myanmar sent a representative to the summit for the first time in three years. The country's military seized power in a coup in 2021.

ASEAN leaders also discussed ways to implement the bloc's peace plan for Myanmar called the 5-Point Consensus. The plan stipulates an immediate end to the violence reports NHK.