Southeast Asian leaders will talk about building a strong economic and political community on Thursday at an annual summit clouded by unrest in Thailand and Myanmar’s widely derided election plans.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cancelled his trip to Hanoi for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit after declaring a state of emergency on Wednesday to control a month-long anti-government protest aimed at forcing an election.

“The situation in Bangkok is worrying,” Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said. “It is a sombre backdrop to our discussions.

“ASEAN is not a collective grouping only for good times. The character of ASEAN is informed by how we react to crises, whether it is to natural disasters or man-made crises.”

The 10-member ASEAN has been largely focused on economic and diplomatic issues since it was founded in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War.

But in 2008, it adopted a charter that turned the region of 580 million people with a combined GDP of $2.7 trillion into a rules-based bloc that aims to become a political, economic and security community over the next five years.

DISPUTE SETTLEMENT MECHANISM

Foreign ministers on Thursday signed a protocol establishing a Dispute Settlement Mechanism that aims to resolve arguments between ASEAN member states, such as over territory.

The terms of reference and procedures are still being worked out, however, and will only be finalised at an ASEAN ministerial meeting in July.

“The Charter doesn’t limit or stipulate the kind of disputes that would brought before the dispute resolution mechanism,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters after the signing ceremony. “Certainly from our perspective it would be better not to be too limiting.”

But he said it would not be used in any country’s internal disputes or human rights issues — in Myanmar, for instance.

“Normally, the dispute settlement mechanism would be interstate, not intrastate, between ASEAN member states. It would be a huge stretch to apply it to a situation within a country,” he said when asked if it could be used to pressure Myanmar.

The Myanmar envoy was asked about widely dismissed election plans at a working dinner of ASEAN foreign ministers on Wednesday, said several participants, including Yeo.

“Their internal processes are still going on, intense discussions, I hope, between the government and the political parties and I hope within the political parties themselves, but the coming months will be critical months for Myanmar,” he said.

Indonesia and the Philippines have publicly criticised Myanmar’s election laws, which ban political prisoners, such as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, from running.

Her National League for Democracy, which won the last election in 1990 by a landslide but was kept from governing, is boycotting this one. That move could make it difficult for the junta to portray the polls as free, fair, inclusive and credible.

Myanmar has so far kept the polling date a secret.

GENTLE APPROACH

ASEAN has never censured Myanmar over its rights record and is unlikely to do so this time. But summit leaders are likely to tell the junta’s representative, Prime Minister Thein Sein, that Myanmar is hurting the group’s image and credibility.

“The Myanmar issue still presents a problem when we want to take ASEAN forward to negotiate and deal with other groupings and countries,” Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said. “It presents a major limitation for us.”

ASEAN has always taken a gentle approach to its most truculent member.

“We are not in a position to punish Myanmar,” Yeo said.

“The reality of the strategic situation is Myanmar’s two biggest neighbours, China and India, will continue to engage the country. For this reason, the U.S. embargo has not worked.

“ASEAN takes a very realpolitik position, which is that if China and India remain engaged in Myanmar, we have to. It is better that Myanmar remain in the ASEAN sphere than being a buffer state in between the two biggest countries on earth.”

(Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Alex Richardson)