ASEAN told not to become political power

ASEAN told not to become political power

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Indonesia's former foreign minister Ali Alatas has warned the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three East
Asian countries, or ASEAN+3 (APT), against being tempted to
become a regional political power.

Alatas, who was a key speaker at Dialog Forum IX co-organized
by the Agency for Policy Studies and Development and the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs in Bandung on Wednesday, expressed optimism
that the organization, set up in December 1967, would grow into a
major force if it focused on economic and financial cooperation.

He said that as a body of commodity exporting countries, APT
would be a vast grouping with its market of 500 million people in
the ASEAN nations people plus the populations of the other three
members -- Japan, South Korea and the People's Republic of China.

"There are substantive policy differences between ASEAN and
the three East Asian nations. Japan, for instance, is part of the
American alliance and China is a large single country," Alatas
told the forum, which was attended by a number of ex-ambassadors,
senior journalists and university observers.

Political and security cooperation, in his view, should be
handled by the ASEAN Regional Forum already functioning. "If APT
is trapped into becoming a political power, I'm afraid the 13 APT
members may only be preoccupied with conflicts with other
countries rather than their economic recovery," he indicated.

The lure of a political or security role was seen by Alatas as
APT's potential barrier arising from current world security
conditions, besides the regional cooperation hurdle in East Asia,
where several sovereignty disputes and claims are prevalent due
to cultural, political and economic diversity.

"Despite its tranquil and stable appearance, East Asia's
political environment still bears a lot of risk of conflicts that
can threaten successful regional cooperation within APT," he
cautioned the meeting, titled "ASEAN+3 Cooperation: Expectations
and Challenges".

In its history, he added, APT was not free from the shadow of
politics either. In the early 1990s Malaysian Premier Mahathir
Mohamad proposed the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) between
ASEAN countries, which was strongly opposed by the US and Japan
for its political slant.

APT could eventually be formed owing to its affirmation that
it would be an organization concentrating on economic pursuits.

"In fact, it has lately been implicitly acknowledged that APT
is EAEC under another name," he maintained.

Alatas suggested that for the moment APT should not increase
its membership though in principle the association remains open-
ended, as conflicts are likely to emerge with new members. "Avoid
starting with too much legality, including secretariat affairs,
which may hamper concentration on economic matters," he said.

The same tone came from Foreign Minister Nur Hassan Wirayuda
who said in a written message that Indonesia should examine the
various possibilities envisaged by APT since 2000 like the East
Asia Summit, the East Asia Free Trade Area, the Initiative for
East Asia Development and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area.

"On the one hand, the projects can boost ASEAN's global
competitiveness, but ASEAN's preparedness to face such
cooperation patterns should also be considered in order to ensure
maximum benefit," the minister noted.

Furthermore, "ASEAN has to do with three powerful East Asian
countries while the association itself still takes time for
consolidation to handle its development gap," Hassan concluded.