ASEAN summit yields major results
ASEAN summit yields major results
By Jusuf Wanandi
JAKARTA (JP): The fifth ASEAN summit in Bangkok on Dec. 14-15, 1995 has ended with more practical results than expected before. ASEAN's Leaders Meetings have not been held frequently and their results have been uneven.
The first one in Bali (1976) was basic, following a period of consolidation of almost 10 years and the changed strategic circumstances after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
These two challenges were responded to, respectively, by two treaties: the ASEAN Concord on ASEAN's cooperation in the future and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).
The second summit in Kuala Lumpur (1977) worked out the aspects of economic cooperation in the ASEAN Concord, and began high-level consultations with other leaders in the Asia Pacific, especially Japan.
The third Summit in Manila (1987), ten years after Kuala Lumpur, was held mainly to support President Corazon Aquino's regime in the Philippines which was challenged by insurgencies (both Communist and religious) as well as insubordination and coup attempts by the military. It also stressed the importance of functional cooperation and promoted new ideas of economic cooperation through ASEAN's private sector.
The fourth summit in Singapore (1992), the first after the end of the Cold War, was a significant one. It created the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) regime for trade liberalization and agreed on ASEAN's political-security cooperation and endorsed the setting- up of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), an institution for CBM and preventive diplomacy that in the longer term hopefully will become a conflict resolution mechanism for the entire Asia Pacific region.
The recent summit in Bangkok also produced significant results. The highlights of the summit were: (1) a first meeting of the leaders of the ten South East Asian countries including Vietnam as the youngest ASEAN member and the three non-ASEAN countries: Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar (the so-called CLM countries). This is the most important and strategic achievement of this summit, because it opened up a real possibility that the idea of an ASEAN-10, as conceived by ASEAN's founding fathers, could become a reality before the end of the century.
Cambodia and Laos will become members in 1997 and Myanmar possibly in 1999. All three acceded to the TAC and were observers of ASEAN in 1976. Question have been raised in the media and among academics whether it is good for ASEAN to have a "widening" of membership before "deepening" of cooperation, among others through AFTA. This is the same challenge faced by the European Union in implementing the Maastricht Treaty first, before Central Europe and the Baltic state can be considered to become the next members of the EU.
For ASEAN, the chance of establishing an ASEAN-10 is of paramount importance not only because it was a romantic dream at the creation of ASEAN in 1967, but also because it is of strategic importance, for the promotion of peace and welfare of the Southeast Asia region in the future. The main objective is definitely to prevent the division of Southeast Asia into two parts: one rich (ASEAN) and one poor (CLM countries). Such a division will be the surest source of future instabilities in the region, which could be "exploited" by outside powers.
On a practical level, the CLM countries could accelerate their economic development and strengthen political stability with ASEAN's help. ASEAN's assistance could include human resource development and the sharing of development experiences. ASEAN could also become an interlocutor in mobilizing financial assistance from third countries.
The welcoming of the CLM countries into ASEAN will definitely create some strains on the process of decision-making and on the unique "style" of ASEAN's tolerance, consensus and political culture. ASEAN leaders have recognized this and therefore have encouraged the granting of assistance to help the CLM countries immediately and not to wait until they become members of ASEAN.
If the experiences of ASEAN ISIS (Institutes of Strategic and International Studies) for the last five years with all ten Southeast Asian countries in political-security and economic cooperation (two series of conferences) could give some guidance, where understanding and goodwill have been created and gradually increased over the years, then the difficulties that ASEAN will undoubtedly have to face will not be insurmountable.
In the longer term ASEAN-10 will be an important factor for peace, stability and dynamism for Southeast Asia and an important player in the development of the Asia Pacific region.
The second important decision in Bangkok was the signing of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) by the 10 Southeast Asian nations. This is Southeast Asian's contribution to strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and supporting the Complete Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which is to be finalized in 1996. Basically SEANWFZ follows the Rarotonga Treaty on the South Pacific nuclear free region which forbids the signatories to posses, produce, store or test nuclear weapons without limiting the shipments of nuclear weapons or nuclear powered vessels, including port calls.
The only difference is the delineation of the region which in SEANWFZ includes the continental shelves and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Southeast Asian countries in accordance with the UN Treaty on the Law of the Sea. This has been questioned by the nuclear powers, especially the United States that has withheld her consent to sign the attached protocol.
China has a special case due to her claims on part of the overlapping EEZ and continental shelves of the Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea area. Despite the fact that the nuclear powers are not willing to support the Treaty as it stands now it is hoped that the technical-legal objections could be accommodated in the near future. And since this is not political in nature as it was before in the U.S. case, this should be relatively easy.
The Chinese objection could be more complicated, and should be studied more carefully.
In the meantime it is heartening to note that the Chinese would like to base her claims in the South China Sea on the Law of the Sea. Based on the law, it will not be impossible to find a solution to China's objection. Anyhow, the leaders have gone ahead with signing the Treaty in Bangkok while recognizing that the attached protocol could be reviewed after consultations with the nuclear powers to find a resolution to their reservations. It is hoped that this can be achieved before the ratification by the seven signatories which will make the Treaty operational.
The summit also decided to: (1) develop the ARF into a more meaningful process to ensuring Asia Pacific security; (2) look for an early and peaceful resolution of the South China Sea disputes; (3) take an active part in the first (Asia-Europe Meeting) ASEM next March, to build a new partnership between both continents for greater growth.
The third major decision is to hasten the pace of AFTA's completion, from 2008 (15 years) to 2003 (10 years), with voluntary efforts to be made by the year 2000, on a large number of items.
In addition, there are other important decisions: (1) a framework for the liberalization of trade in services, such as finance, maritime transport, aviation, telecommunications, tourism and construction; (2) cooperation on intellectual property rights issues; (3) promotion of an ASEAN investment region, to make it attractive and competitive for direct investment; (4) implementation of a new industrial cooperation scheme to boost investment in technological and value-added industries; (5) cooperation in investments and transfer of technology; (6) greater involvement of the private sector, in ASEAN policy-makings; (6) playing an active role in shaping global issues through such fora as the WTO and APEC; (7) continuing efforts to advance the East Asia Economic Caucus; (8) adoption of a general dispute settlement mechanism to deal with problems arising from ASEAN economic arrangements; (9) setting up of a customs "green lane" for quick clearance of products in the CEPT.
Fourth, is its emphasis on the importance of functional cooperation, particularly in social areas, since this provides the guarantee that the main objective of ASEAN cooperation, namely to improve the status, income and participation of ASEAN countries citizens, especially the underprivileged and most common people are not being forgotten. In this context the proposal from the Thai Foreign Minister Kasem Kasemsri at the last ASEAN Ministers Meeting (AMM), in July in Brunei Darussalam, has to be noted. He proposed that a way in ASEAN has to be found to make the people more aware of ASEAN by encouraging their participation in ASEAN's activities and at the same time providing a feed-back to the bureaucrats and officials, who up till now have been the most involved in ASEAN's programs. While the EU has an European parliament, ASEAN on its part could develop a more informal participatory mechanism.
As an example, during APEC's Ministers and Leaders Meetings in Jakarta and Osaka, non-governmental organizations such as PECC (Pacific Economic Cooperation Council) and PBEC (Pacific Basin Economic Council) organized a large-scale meeting for businessmen, academics and the media with government officials and leaders, giving some sense of participation to the non- officials. This in the meantime has become an important tradition which will be continued next year in Manila.
In Bangkok, between the Ministers and Leaders Meeting, the ASEAN CCI, also organized a big seminar for ASEAN business leaders in future ASEAN economic cooperation and business participation. These type of meetings around the Summit or AMM can be organized by the most important and active ASEAN NGOs registered at the ASEAN Secretariat. They could meet separately but at the end they should come together with government officials.
This idea still has to be worked out in detail, but it is vital to make ASEAN more viable in the future because of the importance of ASEANs people's participation and commitment. This is especially true because ASEAN's future cooperation in the various fields will be more intensive and will have a much greater effect than now. Especially in the social field, cooperation has been stressed in: (1) raising awareness of ASEAN among citizens, especially the young generation; (2) upgrade human resources through education and technology transfers; (3) promote strong family values; (4) effective participation for women and enhance ASEAN programs on children and youth; (5) create a drug-free ASEAN; (6) strengthen teamwork on fighting AIDS; (7) strive towards technological competitiveness.
During the Southeast ASEAN-10 Leaders meeting more items have been discussed, among others the Mekong Delta development in cooperation between the ten nations. There will also be an informal summit of Southeast Asian Leaders every year, starting in Jakarta at the end of next year, where other leaders from East Asia such as Japan, China, and Korea will also be invited. These ideas are all very exciting and is a sure sign that ASEAN is not only alive, but expanding with new ideas, plans and programs. It definitely is not true that a summit only produces prepared ideas.
The writer is chairman of the supervisory board of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Window: For ASEAN, the chance of establishing an ASEAN-10 is of paramount importance not only because it was a romantic dream at the creation of ASEAN in 1967, but also because it is of strategic importance, for the promotion of peace and welfare of the Southeast Asia region in the future.