ASEAN nations deplore French nuclear tests
ASEAN nations deplore French nuclear tests
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuter): Southeast Asian nations ended a two-day meeting yesterday deploring nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific and expressing optimism about lowering tensions with China over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a wideranging communique at the end of their annual foreign ministers meeting, expressing concern about the volatility of international financial markets, Vietnamese refugees and efforts to link trade issues with workers' rights.
They called for lifting of the global arms embargo on the combatants in Bosnia and for a more robust mandate for the United Nations peacekeeping mission there.
They welcomed the positive outcome of talks in Malaysia between the United States and North Korea to contain the North's nuclear program, and progress in talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on self-government.
The ministers "deplored the resumption or planned resumption of nuclear tests in the Asia-Pacific in view of the commitment of all state parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to exert utmost restraint on nuclear weapons testing."
But attention throughout the conference was focused on China, which is not a member, but was holding consultations with ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
China has been accused of constructing military facilities on the Spratlys, a chain of uninhabited islands, atolls and reefs straddling heavily-used sealanes in the South China Sea.
The islands are claimed by both Taiwan and China and by four ASEAN members -- newly-inducted Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
China has staked its claim to the islands in the past on the basis of historical and archaeological evidence and until now has insisted on addressing the matter bilaterally, to prevent the other claimants from ganging up on it.
Foreign Minister Qian Qichen issued a statement after meeting ASEAN officials saying China still claimed sovereignty over the islands based on historical claims but was willing to settle the dispute on the basis of international sea law.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, who chaired the ASEAN meeting with China, told reporters the change in the Chinese position was significant. "Drawing lines in the South China Sea would become a much more transparent proposition than has been the case," he said.
He said China had agreed to settle the dispute on the basis of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Philippines Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon emerged from a bilateral meeting with Qian yesterday saying China's new position "opens the door to a political compromise.
"That was not the case when the claim was based only on historical rights," he said.
The highlight of the conference, however, was the induction of Vietnam as the group's seventh member.
ASEAN was founded 28 years ago at the height of the Indochina war when its five original members were worried about communist insurgencies in their own backyards.
Vietnam brings a population of 72 million people and the region's largest standing army to the grouping. As a frontline state against China, with whom it fought a border war in 1979, it brings a new heft to ASEAN's dealings with China.