Asia pushes for Myanmar's inclusion

Asia pushes for Myanmar's inclusion

Agencies, Nusa Dua, Bali

Asian nations will push for the inclusion of Myanmar in a key
Asia-Europe forum even though most of them have criticized the
military-ruled nation for detaining Aung San Suu Kyi, an official
said Tuesday.

Only seven of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- together with
China, Japan and South Korea represent the region in the Asia-
Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum.

Aside from Myanmar, the two other ASEAN newcomers Cambodia and
Laos are not ASEM members.

The 15 European Union members, who make up the other side of
the ASEM grouping, have objected to Myanmar's inclusion due to
the detention of Suu Kyi.

"ASEAN's position is that we are asking to include Laos,
Myanmar and Cambodia in ASEM. It should be a priority and in one
package," Indonesian foreign ministry official Retno Marsudi was
quoted by Agence France Presse as saying.

"Our position is fully supported by the northeast Asian
countries (China, Japan and South Korea)," said Retno.

She was speaking after chairing a meeting of senior officials
from the 10 Asian nations in Indonesia's Bali island in
preparation for the ASEM foreign ministers' meeting beginning
Wednesday.

Retno acknowledged Europe's opposition to Myanmar's membership
but said "we are still discussing it... We are trying to find a
solution and the most important thing is Asia's position is firm
on this issue," she said.

Retno stressed that "there was no problem" among the seven
ASEAN members as well as Japan, China and South Korea in backing
Myanmar as well as Cambodia and Laos in their bid for membership
of ASEM.

Suu Kyi was detained by the military junta following a violent
clash on May 30 between a pro-junta mob and her supporters. The
junta says it is holding her "for her own safety."

Besides the Myanmar issue, the senior official meeting of the
25-member ASEM countries on Tuesday continued to debate other hot
issues, especially those on the North Korea nuclear weapons
crisis, the post-war situation in Iraq and the Israel-Palestine
crisis.

Indonesia's ministry for foreign affairs director general for
America and Europe Arizal Effendy said ASEM senior officials had
agreed to include all those issues on the chairman's statement
that would be brought before the foreign ministerial meeting.

In another development, Japan proposed a declaration of the
non-proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, which all
countries had agreed, in principle, to adopt.

However, most Asian countries would prefer to reword the
declaration so that any ASEM support for action against regimes
with weapons of mass destruction was bolstered by a UN mandate.

Besides political issues, ASEM senior officials also discussed
initiatives on ocean cooperation, health management cooperation,
human rights education and on silk and iron production
cooperation as part of the efforts to improve the closer
relations between the two continents.

The European Union Commissioner of External Relations Chris
Patten is scheduled to present his new concept of partnership in
security and good governance.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri is scheduled to officially
open the ASEM ministerial meeting on Thursday, Arizal said.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Arizal could not
hide his disappointment over the low turnout of European
ministers at this year's meeting, with only four out of 15
European countries participating in the Bali meeting.

"We are disappointed with the level of participation and we
expect that for the upcoming summit, it will be a lot better," he
said.