Asia's top security forum to tackle sea terror, North Korea
Asia's top security forum to tackle sea terror, North Korea
Jane Macartney, Reuters, Singapore
Southeast Asian ministers from kingdoms, juntas and huge Muslim
states will strive to agree this week with colleagues from the
United States and North Asia on how to secure one of the world's
busiest waterways against terrorism.
Scarcely a doubt lingers that the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its 13 partners at the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) security meeting will come up with a formula
to underscore a determination to protect the narrow Malacca
Strait.
Whether they can advance to a consensus to tackle terror in a
region hit by one of the deadliest attacks since the Sept. 11
strikes may matter as much as whether some foreign ministers can
bury their differences long enough to share a cup of coffee.
All eyes will be on U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun to see if they repeat
a brief 15-minute chat over coffee two years ago and thus mark
the highest-level contact since 2002 between the arch-foes.
Paek said he was "too busy" to attend ARF last year in Phnom
Penh or in 2001 in Hanoi, but has promised to come this year.
A meeting with Powell, days after six-party talks in Beijing
on North Korea's nuclear ambitions ended with signs of a start to
real negotiations, offers an "opportunity for further
discussion", said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak
Phuanketkeow.
"More happens on the sidelines, and these bilaterals can be
very important," said ASEAN regional expert Ralf Emmers of the
Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
No one expects a chat over a chance cup of coffee to enable
Powell and North Korea's Paek to achieve progress that has eluded
negotiators since the North Korean nuclear crisis erupted in
2002.
However, a few more minutes of personal contact would at least
allow each to size up the other as the two countries take stock
of proposals for a freeze, rewards and eventual dismantling that
were placed on the table last week in Beijing.
That is one of the advantages of a meeting dismissed by many
as a mere talking shop, said former ASEAN secretary general
Rodolfo Severino.
"If you don't talk, then you have nothing," said another
senior regional diplomat.
Other members of ASEAN will doubtless chat with Myanmar
Foreign Minister Win Aung. What is in doubt is whether ministers
from Europe and the United States will be willing to shake hands
with the representative of a junta that has come in for criticism
at successive meetings for its failure to introduce democracy or
to free Nobel prize-winning activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
"What is the alternative to not having Myanmar in?" said
Severino. "Is it better than having it out?
"At the time it was viewed as a good thing," he said of
Myanmar's 1997 admission to the group. "Although now, with the
benefit of hindsight, there are different views."
Officials of several ASEAN members privately express
embarrassment, especially with Myanmar -- also known as Burma --
due to take over the chair of ASEAN in 2006.
"I would expect considerable discussion on Burma," U.S. State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.
ASEAN has long followed a policy of engagement with Myanmar,
but inched away from its longstanding policy of non-interference
in a member's domestic affairs by censuring the junta last year.
"Some countries will want to bring up Myanmar," said the Thai
official. "We've had some talks before on Myanmar and there have
never been fireworks. The dialog has always been civilized and
constructive."
Where discussion is certain to be civil is on maritime
security, more specifically policing of the Malacca Strait
through which ships carry more than one quarter of world trade.