ASEM meeting will go ahead despite row: Bot

Adianto P. Simamora The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot expressed confidence that the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled for October in Hanoi would go ahead despite the controversy over the participation of Myanmar.

Speaking at a joint press conference after a bilateral meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda in Jakarta on Thursday, Bot said the Hanoi summit would take place.

"As the president of the European Union (EU), we intend to organize together this Hanoi summit in a constructive manner," Bot, who is the current president of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, said.

"We are at the moment preparing that meeting, we are making a catalog of all the problems that have to be solved. We believe this meeting should take place in Hanoi," he said.

Bot, who was born in Batavia (Jakarta), also met with Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday.

Hassan also expressed optimism the ASEM summit would take place as scheduled.

"I believe it is in the strong interest of both the Asian side as well as the European side that we should be able to settle the issues surrounding the upcoming ASEM summit, in particular, the questions of participation," he said.

Asked how confident he was the summit would be held, Hassan said: "I believe it will happen, but let's see on what level. Our bargaining position is quite high."

Myanmar's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have insisted that if the EU wants to include its 10 new states in the summit, Myanmar, along with Cambodia and Laos, must also be represented.

But EU members have pressed hard for Yangon to be kept out of the six-year-old forum because of the junta's repression of political opponents, in particular the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The thorny issue of Myanmar's participation in the Hanoi summit has posed a challenge to Dutch diplomacy since its took over the EU presidency on July 1, 2004.

The Netherlands, the former colonial master of Indonesia, sent former foreign minister Van den Broek to Asia last month on behalf of the EU to resolve the diplomatic ruckus over Myanmar's participation in the ASEM summit.

Meanwhile, during the bilateral talks here, both Hassan and Bot agreed to intensify efforts to combat terrorism.

"Minister Bot has pledged to provide 5 million euros for the cooperation on combating terrorism, particularly activities to be carried out by the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation," Hassan said.

The Netherlands is also expected to dispatch Tom Groten Heis, an expert on counterterrorism, to the Jakarta center to train Indonesian officers.

The two countries also plan to organize a seminar on the empowerment of moderate Islam, which Bot said was an important part of fighting terrorism.

"We have explored how to strengthen the modern Islamic boarding school system, among other things perhaps enriching education by providing vocational training for students," Hassan said.