ASEAN to boost cooperation

ASEAN to boost cooperation

By Oei Eng Goan

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): Foreign ministers of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wound up their 28th annual
meeting here yesterday with a commitment to boost wider political
and security cooperation with other countries in the Asia-Pacific
region.

They also agreed on Indonesia as the venue for their meeting
next July.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said the
meeting in Brunei proved that ASEAN had moved a step forward in
materializing its dream of extending its membership from the
current seven to 10 in the near future.

Alatas told a group of Indonesian journalists in Brunei's
capital that all 10 countries in Southeast Asia have now acceded
to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, ensuring the
association's growing role in creating cooperation and stability
in the region.

"The meeting was able to finalize the legal and technical
aspects of a draft treaty on a Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons
Free Zone, for when we hold the fifth summit meeting in Bangkok
this coming December," Alatas said.

ASEAN, a regional economic grouping set up in 1967, currently
consists of Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which joined the
group last Friday.

"The working group which comprises ASEAN senior officials have
achieved marked progress in working out a nuclear free zone in
the region," Alatas stated, adding that countries which formerly
stifled the treaty responded well.

Indonesia

Alatas, who accompanied Brunei's Foreign Minister Mohamed
Bolkiah at the closing ceremony yesterday, told participants that
the 29th ASEAN ministerial meeting will take place in Indonesia,
which now replaces Brunei as chair of the group's standing
committee.

Indonesia has also been named as the coordinating country for
dialog with the United States.

Speaking at the closing ceremony yesterday, Alatas also noted
that the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the grouping's body to
discuss security in the region, has also moved forward at a pace
comfortable to all participants.

The ARF, set up a year ago in Bangkok, will start meeting
tomorrow with ASEAN dialog partners. The partners are the United
States, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea,
China, Russia and the European Union.

Meanwhile, Alatas, in his capacity as ASEAN spokesman with the
consultative countries, met with his counterpart from China, Qian
Qichen, yesterday to discuss security issues in the region.

"What was new is that China has reiterated its stance over the
Spratly Islands in front of the ASEAN members. China is willing
to settle the dispute under existing international laws,
including the laws of the sea of the UN convention of 1982,"
Alatas said.

The Spratlys are a group of islands believed to be rich in oil
and gas and are currently claimed by China, Brunei, Malaysia,
Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand.

Alatas said that China affirmed that it would resolve the
issue through peaceful means and that it agreed to discuss the
issue bilaterally with claimant ASEAN nations.

Earlier, Alatas also held talks with Vietnam's Foreign
Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and Papua New Guinea's Minister of Lands
and Physical Planning Albert Kipalan.