ASEM to build mutual regard

ASEM to build mutual regard

By Michael Battye

BANGKOK (Reuter): The Asia-Europe summit, prompted by the new world economic order, is likely to prove a watershed for two regions suffused with colonial history.

Asian diplomats say the unprecedented 25-nation conference today and tomorrow will be the first time the regions have met formally as equal blocs.

Some went as far as to say the meeting should lead to a realization in Europe that booming Asia will be the savior of its aging economies.

"One thing we are really hoping for is that the Europeans will realize that, in some ways, the shoe is now on the other foot," said one Asian diplomat who asked not to be identified.

"We in Asia are now in a position to help Europe with its structural economic problems through trade and investment."

The diplomat said Europe had no reason to fear Asia's rocketing development and think in terms of throwing up barriers to protect its jobs and industries. Rather it should embrace the young and growing region with confidence and constructiveness.

Several of the 15 European Union members attending the summit had long colonial histories in Asia.

For years after Asian nations won their independence following World War II, they felt intimidated by their old masters.

No longer. The economic boom across the region over the last decade has been accompanied -- like the sparkling new cities rising on every horizon -- by a growing Asian assertiveness on the world stage. This was especially evident as the summit neared.

Many of the 10 Asian participants -- the seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea -- told Europe bluntly not to bring to the summit its perceptions of controversial issues such as human rights.

European officials hastened to assure their hosts they too wanted a "feel good" meeting, free of any arguments.

"I would like there to be a new approach, based on mutual recognition, due regard for each other," French President Jacques Chirac said in Singapore on his way to Bangkok.

Asia, with ancient cultural traditions too, has its own attitudes to human rights and labor issues which it insists are as valid as any expressed by the West. Leaders say such differences are irrelevant to the task at hand -- creating a long-lasting relationship built on mutual regard.

The counter-attack seemed to have worked, at least for the most part. Although controversial issues such as human rights are certain to be discussed, both sides say it will be done in a non- confrontational way.

"We don't want to be there like ex-colonial powers," said EU Commission President Jacques Santer.

Atsushi Tokinoya, Japan's ambassador to the EU, agreed. "Many Asian countries have the perception that the Europeans are always preaching to them," he said.

"But now, for the first time, we will be meeting on an equal footing."

Asian diplomats said that for them, the critical aim of the summit was to change European attitudes.

The leaders will spend long periods of time together with only translators present, unusual for such top-level diplomatic gatherings.

"What we will be trying to get through to the Europeans is that while their big companies have been in Asia for years and know who we are and where we are going, their governments have tended to perceive us in the old way," an Asian diplomat said.

"The colonial era is over and they must now start seeing us as not only an equal partner, but as people with a lot to offer them."

The East Asian economies, several of them growing at rates of which Europe can only dream, want to absorb European investment and goods. Their governments argue this will create jobs, not transfer them to the East.

Such deep economic ties are vital to world security, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong argued in a 1994 speech in Paris that led to the Bangkok summit.

"We are already in a tripolar economic world comprising North America, Europe and East Asia. Whether these three groups build strong and mutually advantageous ties with each other, or seek to insulate one from the other, will determine if global prosperity, and indeed world security, will be sustained," he said.