Asia unites in adversity
Asia unites in adversity
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Twelve Asian nations formed a sense of unity through adversity during a three-day summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's host Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday.
The annual summit of nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), joined for the first time by Japan, China and South Korea, ended with little concrete progress toward settling a financial crisis that sent several regional currencies plunging to new lows through the day.
But Mahathir felt the meeting had had some success.
"I'm a little bit optimistic now that a lot more people understand the problem ... it was impressed on everyone that when you lose billions of dollars, you don't regain billions of dollars just by marking time," he told a final news conference.
The gathering of ASEAN members and the three Northeast Asian countries was the largest ever meeting of purely Asian leaders.
Mahathir said there was a strong push for a similar meeting next year.
"There is a sense of unity, unity in adversity if you like, because all of us are suffering from the same disease, probably being caused by the same virus," he said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- all of which have been hit to a some degree by the currency turmoil in the region.
Asian markets yesterday shrugged off the summit, with analysts disparaging "bland statements".
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has orchestrated a bailout exceeding US$100 billion for the crumbling economies of Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.
Japan and China stressed their assistance to the region would come within the IMF framework. Japan, plagued with its own domestic financial problems, played down its position as an economic superpower -- Mahathir said Tokyo no longer saw itself as the leading goose among the Asian geese.
There was no offer of extra financial assistance from Tokyo, which stressed what it saw as the importance of a pledge to train 20,000 young Asians.
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto also vowed to prevent his own nation's economic woes from sparking a world recession.
The ASEAN leaders met alone Monday and issued a communique saying the IMF bailouts had so far failed to halt the slide in currencies.
They called on the United States, Japan and the European Union to face up to the global dimension of the turmoil.
In his closing news conference, Mahathir said ASEAN had made no financial claims on the leading economies.
"They merely said that if they can do something about this, please do, that's all."
Senior ASEAN officials said it was vital that major economic powers should express confidence in the future of the Asian economies to help return stability to the region.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin said China had no plans to devalue its currency and Chinese officials said Beijing would continue to support the IMF rescue operations -- China is also in discussions with Jakarta about aid for Indonesia.
Mahathir, whose forceful comments have sometimes been blamed for adding to market turmoil in his country, said yesterday he would stop making remarks that hurt market sentiment.
He said he had been advised to curb his comments against currency traders and that there was a "feeling of fear" of speaking against the market.
"I sense a feeling of fear that if you say the wrong things it will affect the market, so don't say (it)," he said."I accept that, I won't say anything."
Asked about previous charges of a conspiracy against Southeast Asian economies, he said: "The economies of Southeast Asia used to be vibrant and were described as miracle economies and all that. They're no longer miracles, they are no longer vibrant," he said.
"That is the effect, whether there is a conspiracy or not, and when you are up against forces that you can't fight against, there is little that you can do ... We have to accept that in this world there is no equality. Might is still right."
Hashimoto -- Page 6
Bailout -- Page 10