SOUTH-EAST Asia’s top diplomats on Saturday condemned violence in Myanmar’s ongoing civil war and urged “practical” means to defuse rising tensions in the South China Sea during the last of the three-day regional talks.

Top diplomats from China, Russia and China were also present at the summit.

The weekend talks in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, were dominated by the increasingly violent and destabilising civil war in Myanmar.

In a joint statement issued at the end of the talks, the bloc said that there is an urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, and called for “all relevant parties in Myanmar to ensure the safe and transparent delivery of humanitarian assistance, to the people in Myanmar without discrimination.”

“We strongly condemned the continued acts of violence against civilians and public facilities and called for immediate cessation, and urged all parties involved to take concrete action to immediately halt indiscriminate violence,” it said.

More than 5,400 people have been killed in the fighting in Myanmar and the military government has arrested more than 27,000 since the coup in February 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. 

There are now more than three million displaced people in the country.