ASEAN still wants Australian summit but needs time: Cambodia

ASEAN still wants Australian summit but needs time: Cambodia

Agencies
Phnom Penh

The 10-member ASEAN group wants to establish an annual ASEAN plus
Australia summit but leaders need more time to study the
proposal, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said on Tuesday.

He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had
not rejected a request from Canberra to hold a summit each year,
when the group met for its regular annual summits here last week.

"But there were only some requests to have further studies,"
he told reporters. "ASEAN heads of states did not reject
Australia's request for an ASEAN plus Australia summit."

Established summits include ASEAN, ASEAN plus China, ASEAN
plus Three -- which includes China, Japan and South Korea -- and
ASEAN plus India.

Australia's application never moved beyond the discussion
table and rated one line in an executive summary of the summit's
first day.

Malaysia, whose Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is a fierce
critic of Australia, has been lukewarm to the idea of such a
summit. Mahathir had recently accused Australia of hypocrisy for
warning travelers to stay away from Asia in the wake of a deadly
bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper
last week, Mahathir also blocked Australia's bid to join ASEAN
summit in Cambodia last week.

Last Wednesday, Thailand rejected a report that it was
responsible for Australia being denied the request. The Nation
newspaper had quoted diplomats as saying Bangkok had objected
after a row over Thailand reneging on a proposal for Australia to
be one of the founding members of the Asia Cooperation Dialog
(ACD), a Thai-sponsored informal regional forum.

Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra subsequently told his party he
would "only take yellow-skin and black-haired" participants as
members of the ACD, a comment Canberra said demonstrated "a
cavalier attitude", the report said.

Asked who within ASEAN had objected to an ASEAN plus Australia
summit, Hor Namhong replied: "No comment."

India made a similar request at the ASEAN summit in Singapore
two years ago, "but it could not happen (in 2000) and it is the
same as an ASEAN plus Australia Summit."

The first ASEAN plus India summit was held within last week's
forum.

"Cambodia supports an ASEAN plus Australian Summit, because
Cambodia thinks that geographically -- whether you want it or not
-- Australia is in Asia, is a neighbor of Southeast Asia," he
said.

"Secondly, there has been a lot of trade exchange between
ASEAN and Australia. Australia has been a dialog partner with
ASEAN for a long time, and Australia has donated lot of aid to
ASEAN.

"Cambodia thinks that it would be good to have an ASEAN plus
Australia summit. It is good for both ASEAN and Australia," he
said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.