Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has been appointed United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special envoy on Myanmar, the world body says.

Ms Bishop, the Australian National University’s chancellor, will take up the UN role that has been vacant since June last year when Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer stepped down.

The UN said in a statement that Ms Bishop had “extensive policy, legal and senior management experience”.

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 movement spawned out of the junta’s crackdown on anti-coup protests.

Ms Bishop was Australia’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2018 under prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

Ms Bishop became chancellor of the ANU in January 2020.

with Reuters

This post was originally published on Michael West.