BANGKOK — Myanmar's military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dismissed the need for the organization's special envoy on Myanmar, according to a statement from the foreign affairs ministry.

President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who seized power in February 2021 from Suu Kyi's civilian government, has sought to secure political legitimacy since the takeover and restore relations with ASEAN. The coup, which overturned the results of a 2020 election won decisively by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, triggered widespread armed resistance that has since escalated into a multisided civil conflict involving ethnic armed organizations and pro-democracy People's Defence Forces, drawing rare scrutiny to ASEAN's traditional policy of non-interference in members' internal affairs.

ASEAN developed a peace plan for Myanmar in April 2021 — known as the Five-Point Consensus — aimed at ending hostilities, initiating dialogue among contending parties, and allowing humanitarian access, to be facilitated by a special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level ASEAN meetings for failing to comply with the plan, an unprecedented step for the consensus-driven bloc.

In an apparent effort to placate critics, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week — the first known contact with an outside international independent humanitarian organization since her detention began five years ago. Arnaud de Baecque, the ICRC's resident representative, met with Suu Kyi in Naypyitaw on August 3, according to a photo description from AP-Yonhap that noted a birthday cake was present during the visit.

Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital Naypyitaw, on charges that her supporters and human rights groups have described as politically motivated.

The current ASEAN chair, the Philippines, welcomed the ICRC meeting on Friday as a step toward dialogue and reconciliation, while urging greater access to political detainees and reiterating its call for Suu Kyi's "complete and unconditional release."

Myanmar's foreign ministry issued a statement late Saturday criticizing the call.

"Although the government has commuted her sentences based on humanitarian considerations, the matter of a full and unconditional release shall only be carried out in accordance with the law," the statement said.

The statement also indicated that the government will continue working with ASEAN's current special envoy, Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, but does not see the need to continue that arrangement when Singapore takes over the ASEAN chair on January 1, 2027.

"At present, the government, which emerged from the multiparty democratic elections reflecting the genuine will of the people, has assumed state responsibility," the statement said.

In a speech delivered more than three months after being sworn in as president following the elections, Min Aung Hlaing dismissed ASEAN's peace plan, saying some member states have discriminated against Myanmar and that his government would respond on a case-by-case basis.

Critics have dismissed the elections, which were held in December and January, as a sham designed to consolidate the military's grip on power while ostensibly restoring civilian rule.