ASEAN summit marks the beginning of a new era

ASEAN summit marks the beginning of a new era

Leaders of the seven-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet in Bangkok tomorrow. Political analyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar speaks of the summit's importance.

JAKARTA (JP): The fifth ASEAN summit in Bangkok tomorrow will be an historic occasion. In addition to the seven members of ASEAN, the summit will be attended by the leaders of Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Laos and Cambodia will be official ASEAN observers, while Myanmar's leader will attend as a guest of the host country.

This is the first time that leaders from the 10 countries in Southeast Asia have met in a regional forum. Vietnam, which had been at odds with ASEAN since its establishment in 1967, joined the association as a full member in July this year. Laos, together with Vietnam, has been an official observer of ASEAN since 1992, when the former signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. After some hesitation Cambodia also acceded to the Treaty at the last ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Brunei in July, thus becoming an ASEAN observer. Myanmar is the only Southeast Asian country that has not developed an official link with ASEAN. Laos, on the other hand, has already expressed its wish to become an official ASEAN member by 1997.

The first ASEAN summit to be hosted by Thailand marks the beginning of a new era for Southeast Asia. For centuries the region has been divided, first by colonial rulers and later by the Cold War. The end of the Cold War enabled Southeast Asian countries to bury their ideological and political differences, and work together towards a common future.

It is fitting that the first gathering take place in Bangkok. For it was here that the modest Bangkok Declaration establishing ASEAN was made on Aug. 8, 1967. The founding fathers of ASEAN had dreamt of uniting Southeast Asia under one regional organization, but the Cold War stood in the way. Twenty-eight years later the dream is becoming a reality.

The current summit is symbolic and substantive in nature and signifies the evolution of ASEAN. It is clear that the widening of ASEAN, with the inclusion of Vietnam, will not hamper intra- ASEAN cooperation as many had feared. Vietnam has shown a willingness and ability to participate in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), though it won't be able to until slightly after 2003. Further enlargement of ASEAN will not disrupt existing ASEAN projects, now mostly centered around AFTA, since new members can join when they are ready.

Besides finalizing the move towards AFTA through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff plan, the Bangkok summit will realize the decade-long struggle for a Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (SEANWFZ). This concept was first introduced in the early 1980s by Indonesia's then foreign minister Prof. Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, as an integral component of ZOPFAN (Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality).

The concept of ZOPFAN for Southeast Asia, introduced in 1971, was difficult to sell during the Cold War, when the region was used as a proxy battleground by the great powers. It was believed, however, that a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, similar to the ones already established in other parts of the world such as the South Pacific, would be more concrete and attainable.

As it turned out, however, the SEANWFZ concept could not be pushed through during the Cold War due to the strategic location of the region. Of all the major powers, the United States has been the most opposed to the SEANWFZ.

In Bangkok a treaty establishing the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone will be signed by all of the regional leaders. Some cynics argue that while the SEANWFZ is now feasible with the end of the Cold War, it is no longer a necessity. Nevertheless, the zone means long term insurance and a way to prevent regional countries from developing nuclear weapons. Peace cannot be taken for granted and we must strive to put in place as many mechanisms as possible to prevent the outbreak of conflict.

Another important aspect about the Bangkok summit is the institutionalization of the summit itself. ASEAN has been in existence for over 28 years, but there have only been five summit meetings, including this one. The first summit meeting was held in Bali in 1976, nine years after ASEAN was founded. A year later there was another summit, but the third summit only took place in 1987. For years, a meeting of high level policy makers was not considered an essential and routine part of regional cooperation.

Since then there has been a significant change of attitude. For ASEAN to remain vital and viable in the face of international changes and economic competition, the heads of states or governments must be involved in every aspect of ASEAN cooperation.

At the fourth summit in Singapore in 1992 it was agreed that a high level meeting would be institutionalized and held on a regular basis. One hopes that the direct involvement of ASEAN's decision makers will speed up regional cooperation and economic progress.

The writer is head of the Regional and International Affairs Division at the Center for Political and Regional Studies of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.