On April 18, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that he had met with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military junta, to discuss the response to the powerful earthquake that hit central Myanmar in late March. He subsequently claimed that the junta had agreed to extend the ceasefire it announced on April 2, in order to facilitate aid and relief efforts. Last week, the military duly announced an extension of the ceasefire from April 22 until the end of the month.

Unsurprisingly, the regime has mostly failed to honor the agreement. Since the initial ceasefire declaration by the military, the Myanmar Air Force has carried out an estimated 120 airstrikes across different regions, including in earthquake-affected areas. Indeed, this is not the first time the junta has publicly committed to terms, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s Five-Point Consensus peace plan, only to ignore them later. As such, ASEAN must look beyond the junta’s ceasefire announcements and assess the realities on the ground.

Merely achieving a generic ceasefire is not sufficient, especially in the context of Myanmar’s ongoing conflicts. Ceasefires have historically been used by armed groups as strategic tools to buy themselves time to regroup, redeploy, and gain a tactical advantage.