ASEAN has 'made progress' on ASC plan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Southeast Asian states have made good progress on closer security cooperation, especially the planned regional security community concept -- which was proposed by Indonesia last year -- the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

Senior officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met on Sunday and Monday in Jakarta to discuss a draft plan of action for the ASEAN Security Community (ASC).

"The meeting was productive as it made progress on specific issues, such as conflict resolution and post-conflict peace- building as well as in the area of institutional mechanisms, foreign ministry spokesman Marty A. Natalegawa told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"The discussion was very positive. Indonesia now has a better understanding of the position of each ASEAN member on specific issues," Marty said.

Senior officials first met in February in Jakarta followed by the foreign ministers meeting in March in Halongbay, Vietnam, to discuss the regional security community.

But only general issues on the regional security community were discussed at the two meetings.

"In the past, we had to do some guesswork on the position of each country on the specific proposed activities. We now feel there is a convergence of views on the issue," Marty said.

He said that further discussions were to take place to discuss other areas, including political developments and conflict resolution.

The security community was one of three pillars included in the Bali Concord II endorsed last October at the ASEAN summit.

Together with the creation of similar economic and sociocultural communities, the concord lays the foundations for the creation of an ASEAN Community by 2020.

The security community idea was initiated by Indonesia, the current chair of ASEAN, as a means of handling security matters and disputes through a regional framework rather than bilaterally or through international forums.

It envisages strengthening national and regional capacities to fight terrorism and crime, and boosting political and security cooperation.

Indonesia also proposed a regional peacekeeping force at a meeting of senior ASEAN officials in February in Jakarta.

Other ideas presented at the Jakarta meeting included a nonaggression treaty, an extradition treaty, a convention on counterterrorism and an arms register.

Marty said the proposed peacekeeping force was also discussed at the meeting.

"We discussed many issues, including the peacekeeping force. We had a good discussion on the issue (peacekeeping force), there is a general recognition of the need for a regional arrangement to maintain peace and security," he said.