ASEAN ministers set eyes on the next millennium

By Oei Eng Goan and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

SINGAPORE (JP): Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries wound up the 32nd annual meeting on Saturday with strong determination to continue the regional grouping's process of self-renewal while strengthening its political and economic roles in international fora in the coming millennium.

Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar, who officially closed the two-day meeting, handed over ASEAN's yearly rotating chairmanship to his Thai counterpart, Surin Pitsuwan, who will host the 33rd meeting in Bangkok next year.

The 10 foreign ministers of ASEAN issued a 57-point Joint Communique covering a wide range of issues that include plans to enhance cooperation between members of the grouping and the world community.

Formed in 1967, ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

ASEAN reaffirmed its commitment to keep the region open to trade and investment to accelerate the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) so as to help boost the growth of its member countries.

It supported the holding of a Joint ASEAN Investment Roadshow, as proposed by Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong during the meeting's opening on Friday, as a concrete measure to restore the region's economic dynamism and vast opportunities to investors.

ASEAN is also committed to improving its capability in the fields of science and technology to boost people's education, health and standards of living, as well as to monitor and help preserve its land, forest and water resources to achieve sustainable growth.

The communique underlined ASEAN's desire to continue political and economic cooperation with the world community, particularly its dialog partners -- comprising Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- the international financial institutions and the United Nations.

It stressed that such cooperation must be based on principles of nondiscrimination, noninterference in each other's internal affairs and on the basis of equal footing.

No reference was made to the deadlock in the dialog between ASEAN and the European Union; however, it is widely known that the latter has refused to sit down with ASEAN due to Myanmar's admission.

On regional security, the communique said a "stable, strategic relationship among major powers, particularly, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, was a vital contributing factor to the peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, especially Southeast Asia".

Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas said the presence of major powers in the region was a reality in the security setup of East Asia and the Pacific.

"We hope that a new equilibrium can be established at a lower cost and lower level of tension," he said.

Another potential regional flash point which caught ASEAN's attention was the cross-strait tension between China and Taiwan.

Affirming its stance of a "one China" policy, which recognizes Beijing as the sole representative of the Chinese people, ASEAN called on China and Taiwan to solve their problems peacefully.

ASEAN expressed its concern over the developments in the Korean Peninsula and urged both the Pyongyang and Seoul governments to continue dialog while reminding the two Koreas to maintain the 1953 Armistice Agreement.

The communique skirted the rising stress between Malaysia and the Philippines in their overlapping claims over the islands in the Spratlys.

ASEAN emphasized the need for a peaceful resolution along with various efforts to enhance cooperation and a need to adopt a regional Code of Conduct on the South China Sea.

However, no reference was made to the spat between the two ASEAN countries.

When asked about the recent tension which saw Malaysia erect structures on an island claimed by the Philippines, Filipino Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon played down the spat.

"Malaysia-Philippines relations has a much wider spectrum of a relationship then just territorial disputes," Siazon asserted.

"When you're neighbors, God created all these countries that are geographically near each other. And that really means you really have disputes with one another.

"But if that becomes the core of your relationship, then you'll never have an ASEAN. What you do is you downplay your differences and concentrate on your areas of convergence," he explained.

ASEAN ministers will join 12 other ministers on Monday, which includes the 10 dialog partners along with Mongolia and Papua New Guinea, to hold a regional political and security consultation.