Caucus to be on ASEAN agenda<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss at
\ntheir meeting in Brunei next week how to bridge differences among
\nmembers and move forward the stalled East Asian Economic Caucus
\n(EAEC), officials said yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"It is on the agenda, that far I can tell you,\" said a senior
\nMalaysian foreign ministry official.<\/p>\n
Foreign ministry sources said Malaysian Foreign Minister
\nAbdullah Badawi was expected \"to make a hard push for the much-
\ndelayed EAEC\" at the annual ministerial meeting on the
\nAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations in Brunei beginning July
\n28.<\/p>\n
ASEAN's senior officials opened yesterday three days of
\npreparatory sessions in Brunei ahead of the historic ministerial
\nmeeting that will see Vietnam joining Brunei, Indonesia,
\nMalaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as the group's
\nseventh member.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Kamil Jaafar, the Malaysian foreign ministry secretary-
\ngeneral leading the Malaysian senior officials' delegation, said
\nin an interview Sunday that the Malaysia-initiated EAEC was
\nexpected to be discussed.<\/p>\n
\"They are likely to discuss how best ASEAN can approach those
\nothers whom we have planned to include in the caucus,\" Kamil
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The EAEC, mooted in December 1990 by Prime Minister Mahathir
\nMohamad as a loose consultative caucus for East Asia's fastest
\ngrowing economies, was earlier targeted for launch at the end
\n1994 with core members Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and
\nASEAN members.<\/p>\n
But the launch has been stalled by Japan's indecision to join
\non fears of antagonizing the United States, which sees EAEC as a
\nbudding trade bloc, and differences within ASEAN.<\/p>\n
Analysts said Indonesia and Singapore, in particular, appeared
\nlukewarm to the EAEC while favoring the larger Asia-Pacific
\nEconomic Forum dominated by the United States.<\/p>\n
Kamil said ASEAN would have to try \"to bridge its own gap in
\norder not to have different nuances in the treatment of EAEC.\"<\/p>\n
\"The central thrust is to get the EAEC moving. We have to
\nresurrect the spirit of ASEAN and remind ourselves the need to
\nstay together,\" Kamil asserted.<\/p>\n
Mahathir said recently the EAEC could help realize a World
\nBank projection that East Asia would be home to six of the
\nworld's biggest economies led by China by 2020.<\/p>\n
An EAEC without Japan would not serve the objective of its
\nformation, Kamil said, adding he was confident that \"the EAEC
\nwill survive time and eventually take off.\"<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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