The honeymoon surrounding Burma's smoother-than-expected entry to ASEAN this week could soon be over.
The military junta's Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw will tonight come face to face with his country's toughest critic, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, at a key security forum dinner.
Controversy surrounding the rule of the State Law and Order Restoration Council is expected to dominate the Asian Regional Forum tomorrow.
The fourth forum will pit ASEAN ministers and defence envoys against their counterparts from most Asia-Pacific states - the US, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Australia, Canada and India.
With the spotlight firmly on the Cambodian crisis during the ASEAN sessions, Mr Ohn Gyaw has so far had a trouble-free ride since the junta's flag was run up the grouping's flagpole on Wednesday.
The rotund Mr Ohn Gyaw has been seen beaming from ear to ear as his new partners slammed any notion of sanctions in the region.
He has painted a rosy picture of a close-knit 'colonial-free' Southeast Asia and was the first to praise a stinging attack on the West by Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
But stiff questioning lies ahead over the weekend. Ms Albright and colleagues from Japan and Australia are likely to give the Burmese a grilling over human rights, forced labour and the continued restrictions on opposition torch bearer Aung San Suu Kyi.
Defence envoys meanwhile will be seeking to pry into the growing defence ties between China and the junta - a fact diplomats say privately helped to speed Rangoon's admission to the grouping, long wary of Beijing.
Other ASEAN ministers could face tough tests too, analysts believe.
They must justify their controversial theory of 'constructive engagement' with Rangoon - a policy they are clearly yet not ready to try with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen.
Already a broad political church, ASEAN must find consensus across a nine-member grouping now containing two Communist Party-ruled states - Vietnam and Laos. Burma is the first outright military dictatorship in the grouping.
Ms Albright has visited Rangoon before and publicly slammed the junta while on Burmese soil - an act of war in diplomatic terms.
After being promoted to Secretary of State, she was a key architect of President Bill Clinton's move to ban any new US investment in Burma's growing market.
'Burma's problems now become ASEAN problems,' she said on her way to Malaysia this week.
In Rangoon itself, meanwhile, it appears it is business as usual. Just two days ago the Home Minister called for Burma's prisoners to be 'fully utilised' as a labour force to speed development.
