Kuala Lumpur makes fresh plug for EAEC<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (Kyodo): Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad
\nBadawi said yesterday the proposed East Asian Economic Caucus
\n(EAEC) promoted tirelessly by his country is being wrongly
\nperceived as a potentially divisive force among the members of
\nthe 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.<\/p>\n
\"There is no ground for external concern that the EAEC would
\ndraw lines between APEC members,\" Abdullah said in a speech at
\nthe opening session of a two-day ministerial meeting of the
\nAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).<\/p>\n
Pointing to the relatively trouble-free existence of the North
\nAmerican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Australia-New
\nZealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) group, he said, \"If NAFTA
\nor CER members within APEC cannot divide the group, nor can the
\nEAEC.\"<\/p>\n
\"Open regionalism, which APEC subscribes to, does not and
\nshould not prohibit the right of association of like-minded
\ncountries,\" he said.<\/p>\n
First mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in
\n1990, the EAEC is envisaged as a loose consultative forum
\ngrouping ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea as its core members.<\/p>\n
It would exclude such APEC members as the United States,
\nCanada, Australia and New Zealand, some of which have dismissed
\nthe proposed caucus as, at best, a distraction from APEC and
\nurged Japan and South Korea not to agree to it.<\/p>\n
While the seven members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia,
\nMalaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
\ndiffer in their enthusiasm for the EAEC, ASEAN as a group has
\nagreed to pursue it as a caucus within APEC.<\/p>\n
A draft of a joint communique to be issued today at the end of
\nthe meeting says the ministers note \"the increasing acceptance of
\nthe concept and the rationale for the establishment of such a
\ncaucus among the countries of the region.\"<\/p>",
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