Wong said the special envoy played a vital role in sustaining international attention and supporting co-ordinated efforts towards a peaceful resolution in the troubled South-East Asian nation.
Australia would work closely with Bishop, ASEAN and the international community to build conditions for sustainable peace, she said.
Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Wan Azizah, ANU chancellor and former foreign minister Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and former foreign minister Gareth Evans at an oration given in Evans’ honour last month.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Wong also reiterated the government’s call for the Myanmar regime to “cease violence against civilians, release those unjustly detained, allow safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance and return Myanmar to the path of inclusive democracy”.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the army took power from Aung Suu Kyi’s elected government on February 1, 2021.
The country is locked in a civil war between the military on one side and, on the other, a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and an armed resistance spawned out of the junta’s crackdown on anti-coup protests.
Bishop was Australia’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2018 under prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.
She became ANU chancellor in January 2020. The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Genevieve Bell, said Bishop’s recognition was well deserved.
“The entire ANU community congratulates Julie on this important appointment and wishes her the very best in this vital role,” she said.