Asia squares off future talks with European Parliament

Asia squares off future talks with European Parliament

JAKARTA (JP): Asians might refrain from holding future talks
with the European parliament given the body's interest in
meddling in the domestic affairs of Asian countries, an
Indonesian legislator said over the weekend.

"In the future we will have to be wary of any invitation for
dialog from the European Parliament because they continuously
want to intrude in other nation's domestic affairs and tend to
have double standards," said Zamharir AR, the deputy chairman of
the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

He said that during a meeting between the European Parliament
and its Asian counterparts on Wednesday and Thursday in
Strasbourg, the Europeans brought up many domestic issues which
prompted strong protests and a walk-out by the Chinese
delegation.

"That incident clearly shows a double standard and dishonesty.
While it claims to want to initiate a dialog partnership with the
Asian parliaments, it continues to meddle in the domestic affairs
of others," Zamharir said as reported by Antara from the Hague on
Saturday.

The dialog between the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization
and the Euro Parliament meeting began on Wednesday and was
followed by a meeting involving China, Japan and South Korea.

During the meetings the Chinese delegation walked out because
the European Parliament had issued a resolution on Tibet. The
Malaysian delegation strongly protested the domestic issues of
Bakung and Sarawak, which were also raised during the meetings.

Zamharir regretted the attitude of the European
parliamentarians during the gathering, which was designed to
support and follow up on last month's successful Asia-Europe
summit in Bangkok.

He said he was doubtful if another dialog between the
parliamentarians would be held.

On the issue of East Timor, Zamharir said the Portuguese
delegation tried to bring up the matter but failed to find
support.

The Indonesian delegation also delivered a strong protest note
from House speaker Wahono to the European Parliament, which
earlier invited Irian Jaya separatists to plead their case in
Strasbourg.(mds)