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.