ASEAN leaders may deal with crisis

ASEAN leaders may deal with crisis

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Senior ASEAN officials prepared
yesterday for a summit of Asian leaders expected to be dominated
by the economic crisis facing the region.

"The officials have already started meeting in the final run
of preparations for the meeting of the summit," said ASEAN
Secretary General Ajit Singh.

Leaders from the nine-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) are being joined by China's President Jiang Zemin
and the prime ministers of Japan and South Korea for the informal
summit in the 30th anniversary year of the grouping.

The first ASEAN leaders to arrive in Kuala Lumpur were Senior
General Than Shwe, chairman of Myanmar's State Peace and
Development Council and the country's prime minister, and
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Other leaders were due on Sunday, most arriving in time for an
informal dinner hosted by Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad. The summit will be held tomorrow and the day after
tomorrow.

ASEAN now comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand,
Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, with Cambodia
still waiting on the sidelines for a politically appropriate time
to take up membership.

But the only Southeast Asian leader when ASEAN was founded in
1967 who is still in power, Indonesia's President Soeharto, is
staying away from the informal summit on doctors' orders --
although ASEAN sources said he was still under pressure to
attend.

Indonesian and ASEAN sources said he was suffering from a
stomach upset after doctors told the 76-year-old leader last week
to take a rest following a strenuous 12-day tour to southern
Africa, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Minister Ali Alatas will represent Indonesia.

The meeting will be the first gathering of ASEAN government
chiefs since the economic crisis burst over the region in July.
ASEAN sources said the currency crisis would be one of the top
items for discussion.

Another more congenial topic will be a political and economic
vision for ASEAN looking towards the year 2020. Sources said the
final details of the vision had been settled for the approval of
the group's leaders.

Another topic will be peace and stability, including progress
on a treaty establishing a nuclear weapons free zone which most
ASEAN members have already ratified.

ASEAN sources said China and the grouping were expected to
issue a political declaration covering peaceful coexistence and
the principles enunciated in the treaty of amity and cooperation
in force between ASEAN members.

ASEAN and Japan were due to announce a general agreement on
strengthening regional cooperation in political, economic and
security matters, the sources said.

They said ASEAN was also expected to provide some expression
of support for the Korean Energy Development Organization aimed
at supporting the peaceful use of nuclear energy in North Korea.

The sources said the issue of Cambodia would likely arise
after the decision in July to delay its membership in ASEAN until
there was a clarification of the political situation there.

The refusal of the European Union to accept Myanmar's
participation in EU-ASEAN meetings was another possible topic.
Western nations, including the EU and the United States, have
been hostile to Myanmar's membership in ASEAN over record of
Yangon's military rulers on human rights and democracy issues.