ASEAN affirms regional lead

ASEAN affirms regional lead

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As dialog partners urged a greater role with the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), foreign ministers
of the regional grouping reaffirmed on Wednesday that ASEAN would
remain in the driver's seat in their cooperation with third-party
countries and organizational groupings.

Their assertion came amid the intention of ASEAN's dialog
partners -- China, Japan and South Korea -- to hold the East Asia
Summit next year.

The ministers also pushed the regional grouping to review the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) structure in order to retain ASEAN's
role as the driving spirit, as proposals had also been made for a
shared leadership of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) involving
ASEAN, its dialog partners, 12 Asia-Pacific countries --
including the U.S. and Australia -- and the European Union.

In their joint communique on the ARF, ASEAN ministers stated:
"We resolved to ensure that ASEAN shall continue its leading role
to further the momentum of cooperation in further advancing the
ARF process, as its contribution to the maintenance of peace,
security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region."

During Wednesday's closing ceremony of the 37th ASEAN
Ministerial Meeting (AMM), outgoing chairman Minister of Foreign
Affairs Hassan Wirayuda underlined that wider cooperation should
not threaten the future existence of ASEAN.

"In view of various proposals for summit meetings with ASEAN
by our dialog partners, we have to rationalize our policy on such
summits. We will see to it that in engaging in summit dialogs, we
do not strain our resources and still do justice to summit
decisions and agreements," he said in his closing remarks,
clearly referring to the East Asia Summit plan.

On the summit plan, however, the foreign ministers appeared
divided, as the idea for an East Asia Summit was initially
proposed during the Kuala Lumpur ASEAN Summit in 1997.
Discussions on the matter had been continually deferred by
several ASEAN members.

Indonesia voiced the strongest objections to the proposed
summit, pointing to the importance of upholding the relevance and
existence of ASEAN.

Malaysia, on the other hand, supported the proposal, citing
the importance of enhancing the existing cooperation with dialog
partners.

"The debate has prolonged the final session of the AMM, as
Malaysia would like to see a development of the proposal that was
presented in Kuala Lumpur," a diplomat attending the session told
The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile, Hassan defended the soft stance against Myanmar,
that ASEAN had simply underlined the need to involve all social
strata in the ongoing national convention in that country,
stressing that there had been some progress in Myanmar and ASEAN
should appreciate its efforts to draw up a new constitution.

An envoy said during the meeting, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win
Aung had briefed them that on May 17, Suu Kyi was invited to the
national convention, but that she had declined.

"The problem is that when one government has lost its
credibility in front of the international community, the world
will not believe whatever explanation they give," the envoy said.

On Thursday, ASEAN will meet with their major trading
partners, including the U.S. and the European Union, and on
Friday, ASEAN will host the ARF annual meeting. -- (For more stories
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