Asia security forum appeals for diplomacy to solve conflicts

Asia security forum appeals for diplomacy to solve conflicts

Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press/Vientiane

Asia's biggest security forum agreed on Friday to push efforts to
fight terrorism, keep the Straits of Malacca piracy-free and fend
off conflicts through diplomacy as it ended an annual session
bereft of some of the region's top diplomats.

The forum capped a six-day minister's conference of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations that saw Australia shed
past reservations and sign a nonaggression pact with its
neighbors, joining efforts to build an Asia trade bloc on a par
with those in Europe and North America.

The 10-member Southeast Asian bloc joined 15 other Asia-
Pacific nations -- including Timor Leste, admitted to the group
Friday -- for the ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos to discuss
terrorism, the situation on the Korean peninsula and the safety
of the Straits of Malacca, the world's most pirate-infested
waterway.

The ARF agreed on a new doctrine to empower its chairman to
convene committees to intervene to head off brewing conflicts.
Details were to be worked out later.

"This is the year for a transition from just meeting to build
confidence to moving into the arena of preventive diplomacy,"
Thailand's Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said.

Despite those ambitions, the gathering in the Laotian capital
of Vientiane was marred by the absence of top diplomats from the
United States, Japan, China and India, who sent deputies instead.

Ministers at the meetings in Vientiane said they did not
believe the no-shows would diminish the forum's profile.

Instead, the officials said the ARF's role was bound to
expand, given the lack of any other regional body equipped to
help smooth the many points of friction in the region: India-
Pakistan, the two Koreas, China-Japan and various other disputes,
often involving conflicting claims over islets or waterways.

"It provides an opportunity to frankly address issues that
otherwise might not be addressed," said Australia's Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer.

The ministers condemned recent terrorist attacks in England
and Egypt and endorsing efforts to improve regional maritime
security, prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and
combat trafficking in illegal weapons.

"In order to address terrorism the ministers agreed there is a
need to fully address the root causes of terrorism," Laotian
Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad said.

"We focused on what is happening on the ground. Associating
Islam with terrorism has done a lot of disservice," Malaysian
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said, adding that countries
must ensure they don't become "fertile soil for the nurturing of
terrorist activities."

ASEAN signed pacts with both Pakistan and New Zealand to boost
cooperation in fighting terrorists, including pledges to share
information on terrorist organizations.

Also in Vientiane, the U.S., Australia, China, India, Japan
and South Korea announced a proposal to help control greenhouse
emissions by developing cleaner energy technologies.
Environmentalists suspected the nonbinding pact could undermine
the Kyoto anti-pollution treaty.

Saving the ASEAN bloc from a potentially damaging standoff
with Washington, Myanmar agreed this week to forgo its rotating
chairmanship of ASEAN in 2006. The U.S. had threatened to boycott
ASEAN meetings in the military-ruled country in protest of its
human rights record and lack of democratic reforms.

Kantathi, the Thai minister, said the decision will prevent
Myanmar from taking up the chairmanship until it restores
democracy, and said that "the pressure is not off" the junta to
push forward with reforms.

Once democracy is restored, "then we would allow them and
welcome them to the chair, to come back and be at the front
line," he told reporters.

The work in Vientiane done, ASEAN officials were looking ahead
to their annual summit, due to be held in December in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia. That gathering will also include the inaugural
East Asia summit, to include ASEAN's 10 core members plus China,
Japan, South Korea and invitees New Zealand, India and Australia.