Arms controls talks in ASEAN proposed

Arms controls talks in ASEAN proposed

MANILA (Agencies): A proposal to include arms controls talks
in the agenda of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has been made at
a regional security conference in the Philippine capital, an
official said yesterday.

Gerd Langguth, executive chairman of the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation, sponsor of the two-day forum said this was among the
issues raised at the forum attended by delegates from the member
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
China and other regional powers.

Delegates noted that the "ASEAN enjoys a unique era of
stability and security" but at the same time this was
characterized by increasing military build-up and procurement,
Langguth said.

"Some scientists made a proposal that arms control be
integrated into the ARF," Langguth said, but he did not say how
this should be done.

He also would not identify which delegates raised these
concerns or which countries were acquiring new weapons.

Tensions in the Korean peninsula, the emerging role of China,
and the involvement of the United States in the region were
situations that influenced the build-up, delegates said.

"Without the United States in the next years there will be no
political and military security in the region," Langguth quoted
delegates as saying.

The ARF is a forum for dialog on security matters affecting
the South East Asian region.

It includes security experts, academics and government
officials from the seven member countries of ASEAN -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
as well as China, Japan, the United States, Australia, and
Germany.

The two-day conference ended yesterday after meetings on the
region's security amid modernization and globalization.

It was also organized by Manila's Institute for Strategic and
Development Studies with Konrad-Adenauer, a German non-government
organization that promote democracy, human and civil rights and
equitable development.

Philippine President Fidel Ramos, who addressed the meetings
Monday, said China's rise "will unavoidably generate political
and military pressures on the Asia-Pacific."

However, economic failure of the world's most populous nation
would be "even more alarming," he said.