With world leaders\u2019 \u2018abysmal failure\u2019 to uphold global order, ASEAN\nholds lessons: Timor-Leste president<\/p>\n
President Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta also called on the Southeast Asian\ngrouping to have the \u201caudacity to declare the South China Sea a zone of\npeace\u201d in a special address at the Shangri-La Dialogue on May 30.<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: Amid a fraying global security order, the Association of\nthe Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) offers a model on how \u201cpatient\npractical diplomacy\u201d can transform conflict into cooperation, said\nTimor-Leste President Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta in a special address at this\nyear\u2019s Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday (May 30).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world where bridges are burned faster than they are built,\nASEAN provides lessons on how sustained dialogues (and) engagement can\nsafeguard against conflict and deliver shared benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the thoughts of despair and hope that came to me as I\nwatched the abysmal failure of global leadership resulting in\ndevastating wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran \u2026 consequences of which\nreverberate across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to an audience of defence ministers, military leaders and\nsenior officials from more than 40 countries, Ramos-Horta described the\nUnited Nations (UN) Security Council - a major global body for\nmaintaining international peace and security - as \u201cmoribund\u201d and\n\u201cirrelevant\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a sad mirror of the state of the world today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Expanding the council\u2019s membership or curbing the veto powers of its\nfive permanent members - namely China, France, Russia, the United States\nand the United Kingdom - still falls short of rendering it as an\n\u201ceffective, credible guardian of international security\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe require much more than that \u2026 We all routinely speak of\npreserving the rules-based order but rules do not survive because they\nare printed in charters. They survive because states show restraint,\nconsistency, and dialogues to resolve grievances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has previously called for\nreform of the UN Security Council, including expanding the number of\npermanent members.<\/p>\n
Sustained security cannot be built through coercion and fear,\nRamos-Horta said on Saturday, warning that if the most vulnerable people\nin the country suffer harm, confidence in the international laws and\ninstitutions designed to prevent and resolve wars would be eroded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen rules appear to protect some and not others, small states begin\nto wonder whether the language of order is really only the language of\npower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Drawing on his country\u2019s own experience, Ramos-Horta said that\nTimor-Leste\u2019s independence was built through \u201cyears of patient and\npractical diplomacy\u201d involving multiple actors, including the UN and\nIndonesia, which \u201cgradually turned all wounds into new bonds\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory must not imprison nations,\u201d he said in his 15-minute\naddress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWise leadership and dialogue can turn conflict into coexistence,\ncoexistence into friendship and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that ASEAN offers a \u201cgood example\u201d, having emerged from a\nregion marked by colonial scars, wars among Indochina countries and past\nCold War rivalries, rather than a \u201ctranquil epoch\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both the experiences of Timor-Leste and ASEAN, Ramos-Horta said, hold\nkey lessons for \u201cpatient, practical and effective diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cASEAN\u2019s achievement in this respect is not that it made all\ncountries seem alike. It has not erased differences \u2026 it created habits\nof cooperation despite those differences,\u201d said the Nobel Peace Prize\nlaureate.<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta highlighted ASEAN\u2019s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation which\naffirmed principles which he said \u201csound simple but were revolutionary\nwhen practised\u201d.<\/p>\n
Core principles in the legally-binding treaty on inter-state\nrelations include mutual respect for the independence and sovereignty of\nall nations, settlement of disputes by peaceful means and a renunciation\nof threats or the use of force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resulting trust between ASEAN nations has delivered vast mutual\nbenefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Through various meetings and agreements, the Timor-Leste president\nsaid ASEAN has shown that it can be constructive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has shown that dialogue can become trade, trade can become\ninterdependence, interdependence can become a shared interest in peace,\u201d\nhe added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt planted a banyan tree and under its foliage, leaders gathered and\nplotted the end of wars.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he acknowledged that ASEAN is \u201cnot heaven on earth\u201d,\nreferring to the Myanmar conflict, and tensions in the South China Sea\ndue to overlapping territorial claims by numerous ASEAN countries and\nChina.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving consensus is frustratingly slow, diplomacy can disappoint.\nDisillusionment can produce cynicism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On the South China Sea, Ramos-Horta said that apart from a code of\nconduct being negotiated by ASEAN and China, \u201csomeone must have the\naudacity\u201d to declare it \u201ca zone of peace\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot necessarily that everyone (member states) has to abandon their\nlegitimate historical legal claims, but do not allow these claims to\nfreeze initiative that would, in fact, gain for everybody more\nconfidence, and then lessen tensions.\u201d Ramos-Horta added.<\/p>\n
ASEAN member states and China are currently engaged in negotiations\nof the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), which commenced in\nMarch 2018.<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta also described the Myanmar civil war as a \u201cstain on\nASEAN\u2019s otherwise impressive catalogue of successes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta\u2019s address came less than a year after Timor-Leste was\nformally admitted as ASEAN\u2019s 11th member.<\/p>\n
The country was formally admitted into ASEAN at the bloc\u2019s summit in\nOctober last year after more than a decade of efforts to join.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s youngest nation, which gained independence from\nIndonesia in 2002, formally applied to join ASEAN in 2011 during\nRamos-Horta\u2019s first presidency from 2007 to 2012.<\/p>\n
It was only in November 2022 during the ASEAN chairmanship of\nCambodia - and months after Ramos-Horta began his second term as\npresident in May 2022 - that the 10 ASEAN countries agreed in principle\nfor Timor-Le<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/with-world-leaders-abysmal-failure-to-uphold-global-order-asean-holds-lessons-timor-leste-president-1780141883", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }