ASEAN officials to discuss China

ASEAN officials to discuss China

PHILIPPINES: Senior officials from the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in the Philippine
capital over the weekend to take up a draft strategic partnership
agreement with China, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

The meeting on Saturday and Sunday will bring together
officials with the rank of deputy foreign minister or
undersecretary from ASEAN member states Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.

The meeting will take up an ASEAN-China "joint declaration on
strategic partnership for peace and prosperity," the department
statement said without elaborating. ASEAN and China agreed in
November 2001 to establish an ASEAN-China free trade area by
2011.

Diplomatic sources said the senior officials would also
discuss a controversial bilateral agreement between China and the
Philippines to conduct a joint project to gather data on
petroleum resources around the Spratly Islands.

The Spratlys are claimed in whole or in part by ASEAN members
Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines along with China, Taiwan and
Vietnam. -- AFP