ASEAN ministers to meet in KL on new members
ASEAN ministers to meet in KL on new members
JAKARTA (JP): The foreign ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold a special meeting next
week in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the admission of Cambodia, Laos
and Myanmar as full members.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said
yesterday that the meeting would discuss reports from ASEAN
secretariat general and from the countries' economic ministers.
The ministers are also scheduled to hold its annual meeting in
Kuala Lumpur next July. Malaysia is the current chairman of the
association which also includes Brunei, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
"Our main agenda is to decide on our recommendation to our
heads of governments about the timing of their entry," said
foreign minister Ali Alatas yesterday after swearing in Nugroho
Wisnumurti as the foreign ministry's director general for
political affairs.
The leaders of ASEAN agreed in its first informal summit in
Jakarta last year to admit the three countries simultaneously
without mentioning the exact timing of their entry.
The U.S. State Department's spokesman Nicholas Burns' said
last Saturday that the U.S. would lobby ASEAN against admitting
Myanmar on account of Yangon's poor human rights record.
Burns said the U.S. had very strong concerns about the plan to
include Myanmar, although it had no objection to the other two
countries.
President Bill Clinton approved economic sanctions against
Myanmar last week due to human rights abuses by its military
government.
The U.S. and other western countries have criticized Myanmar
for failing to recognize the democratically-elected government of
the opposition National League for Democracy, which was co-
founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
In reaction to the sanction, Malaysia's Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad said last week that, "we are trying very hard
to get Myanmar into ASEAN".
Thailand's Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh also said that
the U.S. sanctions would not affect Yangon's entry into ASEAN.
"ASEAN will not change its position just because of the
pressures. Our position will be based on objective criteria,"
Alatas said.
In a visit to the three countries in February, President
Soeharto assured them of Indonesia's support of their plan to
become full members of the association.
Soeharto is the only founding father of ASEAN who is still in
power. The group was established in August 1967.
In last year's summit, Soeharto expressed his hope that all
countries in Southeast Asia would be full ASEAN members in its
30th anniversary this year.
ASEAN will celebrate the group's 30th anniversary at the
second informal summit in Kuala Lumpur in December this year. The
summit will be attended by its 10 ASEAN members.
Nugroho Wisnumurti was sworn in yesterday as the foreign
ministry's director general for political affairs. He replaced
Izhar Ibrahim who will become Indonesia's new ambassador to
Germany.
Nugroho, 57, had just completed his assignment as
Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United
Nations for five years. He was elected the United Nations
Security Council's president in August 1995 and November 1996.
Alatas said Nugroho would be replaced at the United Nations by
his deputy Makarim Wibisono. (06)
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