ASEAN rejects Malaysian plan for 'ASEAN plus three' secretariat
ASEAN rejects Malaysian plan for 'ASEAN plus three' secretariat
Agencies, Bandar Seri Begawan
ASEAN foreign minister on Monday rejected a Malaysian proposal to
house a secretariat for the dialog process between the 10-member
Southeast Asian grouping and China, Japan and South Korea.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said he was
disappointed with the decision.
In rejecting Malaysia's plan, most members of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) felt that setting up a 13-
nation East Asian base in Kuala Lumpur would erode the strength
of the ASEAN secretariat in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
"We are very disappointed because we have worked very hard on
this. I suppose we may have misunderstood them.
"All the countries we expected to be with us are not with us
and they are major countries," Syed Hamid said before leaving for
Kuala Lumpur on late Monday to receive U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell who will be visiting Malaysia Tuesday as part of his
Southeast Asian tour.
Among the countries that were strongly against Malaysia's
proposal were Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
China, Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, are said to have
given tacit backing to the Kuala Lumpur secretariat plan.
Earlier in the meeting, foreign ministers of Malaysia and
Singapore dragged what had been a closed-door debate over a new
secretariat for an ASEAN institution into the open, with each
claiming more support for their position on Monday.
The dispute turns over a proposed secretariat for what has
become known as ASEAN Plus Three, regular meetings between the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the three Northeast
Asian powerhouses, China, Japan and South Korea.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who sees the group
as the embryo of an East Asian union he has long advocated to
counter the power of the United States and the European Union,
has proposed hosting the secretariat in Kuala Lumpur.
But Singapore, which will provide ASEAN with its next
secretary-general for the coming five years, and Indonesia, home
of the present ASEAN-only secretariat, have been opposed,
suggesting that an office for ASEAN Plus Three in the current
secretariat would suffice.
Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar described the
Malaysian proposal Monday as "premature," leading to a
"duplication of work and .... resources."
Jayakumar told reporters that most ASEAN countries -- the
group comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
shared his concerns.
Leaders and ministers of ASEAN and their counterparts from the
three North Asian countries have been meeting annually to discuss
key political, economic, security and tourism issues since 1999.
Syed Hamid said he was surprised by the argument of some of
the ASEAN members that the ASEAN secretariat would lose its
importance if Kuala Lumpur housed the so-called ASEAN plus Three
secretariat.
He said when the other Southeast Asian nations agreed to join
the Asia-Europe Meeting (AEM), host the ASEAN Regional Forum or
join the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, there
was no fear about ASEAN losing its importance.
"But when we talk of the need to establish the ASEAN plus
three secretariat, they were not able to accept it," he lamented.
ASEAN ministers agreed on Monday to allow an ASEAN plus three
unit under the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta.