ASEAN leaders focus on trade, antiterrorism

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Phnom Penh

Southeast Asian leaders on Monday agreed to step up antiterrorism measures and form a trade pact with China to create the biggest free trade zone on earth, encompassing more than 1.7 billion people.

Another landmark accord underscored China's foray to mend fences when it signed a deal with its southern neighbors to avoid conflict over the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea over which Beijing has come to the brink of war with Vietnam and the Philippines several times in recent years.

The deals culminated a day of talks among the 10 members of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, South Korea and Japan that was dominated by a declaration condemning militant violence as a threat not only to people but to prosperity.

Reeling from last month's bombing on Bali, leaders of some of the world's most populous Muslim nations vowed to "intensify our efforts collectively and individually, to prevent, counter and suppress the activities of terrorists groups in the region."

They urged the international community not to issue warnings against travel to countries increasingly reliant on tourism or to blame specific religious groups.

"We deplore the tendency in some quarters to identify terrorism with particular religious or ethnic groups," an ASEAN statement said.

To follow up the declaration there would be several conferences on terrorism, money laundering and tourism hosted by different countries in ASEAN.

The group also agreed to set up a regional counter-terrorism center in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

A statement on tourism pledged cooperation among law enforcement agencies to protect tourists.

In addition, the agreement among Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia to combat terrorism got another boost on Monday when Thailand and Cambodia joined the agreement.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said that the agreement would allow the five participating countries not just to exchange information but also to conduct joint intelligence operations, patrols and investigations regarding terrorist activities.

"It makes it possible for us to do such operations and this agreement makes it a permanent deal between the participating countries," Hassan remarked.

"We will also try to get Singapore to join the agreement, in the near future," he said, adding that President Gloria Arroyo had asked Singapore to join, but no response was given.

With participants agreeing that the war on terror had become an essential ingredient for prosperity, leaders turned their attention to ways to boost trade and foster economic integration. The China agreement fit the bill.

"I would say that this is one of the most significant agreements to be signed this year anywhere in the world," said ASEAN secretary general Rodolfo Severino.

Preempting a growing chorus of concern that the Chinese behemoth could swamp its neighbors, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji told the meeting: "Facts have shown that economic growth in China has not come about at the expense of the development of others."

Negotiations on the ASEAN-China free trade area with a potential combined market of 1.7 billion people will start next year. China and ASEAN have a combined gross domestic product of US$1.5 trillion to $2.0 trillion.

The free trade area that will stretch from the frozen steppes of China's northern Mongolia region to the palm-fringed beaches of Indonesia will be the largest in the world.

The deal comes as current efforts to set up an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) have lost their way.

"It is critical for ASEAN to know its destination and which path will take it there at the crucial crossroads in its history," Severino told the leaders in his closing speech.

"Regional economic integration seems to have become stuck in framework agreements, work programs and master plans," he raged in a thinly veiled reference to the deal with China.

The reluctance of some countries to make changes had stalled integration of the entire group, he told leaders in Phnom Penh. He did not identify the member states.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

On the second day of the summit on Tuesday, there will be a discussion between ASEAN and India. The countries were exploring the possible field of cooperation especially in technology.

"We are also discussing the possibilities to include Australia in the next summit in Indonesia," Hassan said

The next ASEAN summit is scheduled to be held in Bali in 2004.