ASEAN told to match words with action

ASEAN told to match words with action

HANOI (Reuters): Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Friday
wrapped up a week of meetings with world powers on resolving
regional conflicts and winning help for their troubled economies,
but critics said the forum was all talk and no action.

The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
met big-power partners like China, Japan, India, the European
Union and the United States in Vietnam to discuss the many
conflicts -- past, present and future -- that hang over the
region.

Ministers told a closing news conference the talks had been
very constructive. But some ASEAN members said the group had to
reform and match words with action, or risk becoming irrelevant.

"I think we are all aware that we in ASEAN are still going
through a very difficult patch, not only because of the global
international gloomy outlook, but also many of us have internal
problems, political transitional problems," said Singapore
Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar.

"In a sense ASEAN has to regroup. But the most important thing
is acknowledgement of our problems."

ASEAN is struggling to retain its credibility in a post-Cold
War world where it is no longer of importance as a bulwark
against communism. To make matters worse, its once-thriving
economies are mired in crisis.

At a time of economic downturn it now faces the difficult task
of trying to integrate the poorer economies of former enemies
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and of military-ruled pariah Myanmar.

The political volatility which has scared off most foreign
investors was underlined during the talks by events in Indonesia,
where the frail and almost-blind President Abdurrahman Wahid was
sacked and replaced by his deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

U.S., China

Center of attention during the week's meetings was a further
thaw in the frosty relationship between the United States and
China, underlining ASEAN's struggle to avoid being sidelined and
overshadowed by its giant neighbor.

After a meeting on Wednesday between U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, Beijing
said on Thursday it had paroled two U.S.-based Chinese scholars
jailed for 10 years earlier in the week for spying.

Powell, who was in Vietnam for the first time since he fought
the communists as a soldier more than three decades ago, is due
to hold further meetings in Beijing on Saturday.

A meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) -- Asia's key
security grouping -- discussed the political changes in
Indonesia, tensions on the Korean peninsula, and U.S.-China
relations.

But although participants said discussions had been frank and
honest, some were frustrated that the ARF remained just a talking
shop for "confidence building" and had not yet evolved a more
proactive role in resolving and preventing regional conflicts.

"We need to review existing mechanisms... so that ASEAN can
continue to be relevant and of strategic importance to external
countries," Jayakumar said. "The ARF is now moving step by step
from confidence building measures to preventive diplomacy."

But more conservative members like Vietnam were reluctant to
see the forum becoming more than a place to exchange views.
"We have to move gradually," Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen
Dy Nien told a news conference. "Confidence building measures are
the main thrust of the ARF."

Little progress was made during the week on one of the
region's main concerns -- relations with Stalinist North Korea.
North Korea's representative told the forum Washington was
attaching too many preconditions to a resumption of dialogue.

Powell insisted the United States was willing to hold talks
anytime and anywhere, without preconditions.

Pyongyang's foreign minister did not even attend the
gathering, saying he was "too busy".

Other unresolved regional spats include a row between Japan
and China over trade, a new Japanese textbook critics say glosses
over wartime atrocities, and a controversial planned visit by
Japan's prime minister to a shrine honoring war dead.

China and several ASEAN states are also in dispute on the
Spratly Islands, a remote archipelago said to be rich in oil. No
progress was reported on efforts to resolve this issue.

But, at a closing gala dinner on Thursday night, ministers put
differences aside for what has become a ritual after ARF
meetings, taking to the stage to sing, dance and generally play
the fool.

Powell donned a red bandana to croon a ballad about a lovesick
cowboy entranced by a Vietnamese maiden -- played by Japanese
Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka in traditional Vietnamese dress.
Vietnam's Nien, more soberly, sang a national folk song.