"Bangladesh has been trying to get the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a bloc of 10 nations that includes Myanmar, involved in the process of Rohingya repatriation, which was supposed to begin more than 15 months ago as per an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Dhaka hopes that Asean will be involved as a civilian monitoring entity in the repatriation process, to boost confidence among the brutally-oppressed Rohingyas – currently living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar – to safely return to Rakhine. Recently, Bangladesh has been pitching the idea – wherever possible – of involving the bloc with the repatriation process. On May 3, during the fourth meeting of Bangladesh-Myanmar joint working group (JWG) in Naypyidaw, Dhaka highlighted the need for allowing greater engagement of Asean in improving ground situation as well as raise confidence among the Rohingyas. Senior government officials told Dhaka Tribune that Myanmar is always reluctant to involve the United Nations or any other multinational entities in the repatriation process. However, Naypyidaw seems to appear “a bit soft” regarding getting the southeast Asian bloc involved, due to its membership and trust in most of the members in the organization, they added. Of the Asean members, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore are Buddhist-majority countries, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei are predominantly Muslim nations, and the Philippines has an overwhelming Christian majority. Keeping all the relevant aspects in mind, Bangladesh is “deeply engaged” with Asean to convince it to be a part of the Rohingya repatriation process to ensure it is sustainable, which is “difficult, but doable,” the officials said..."