Australia, New Zealand may miss E. Asian summit

Australia, New Zealand may miss E. Asian summit

Australia and New Zealand will not be allowed to attend an inaugural East Asian summit unless they sign a non-aggression pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN ministers decided on Monday.

Malaysia in December will host the summit, which brings together ASEAN and its "Plus 3" partners China, Japan and South Korea.

Australia, New Zealand and India have also expressed a desire to join the summit.

Prospective summit partners must have "substantive relations with ASEAN, they must be a full dialog partner and they must accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), said a statement by the ministers at the end of their annual retreat.

The treaty bans signatories from using violence to settle conflicts in the region.

"India obviously is qualified on all three counts," said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo.

"In the case of Australia and New Zealand, we hope they would be able to accede to the TAC and be able to join us in Kuala Lumpur."

ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane last November called on Australia, along with New Zealand, to show good faith by signing the TAC to dispel concerns about Australia's threats to carry out pre-emptive strikes on foreign terror bases.

Foreign ministers are scheduled further to formalize the expansion plans during ministerial meetings in Laos in July.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said last month that Australia, New Zealand and India should be excluded from the first meeting. Indonesia has expressed support for Australia's inclusion. --AFP