Australia, NZ excluded from Asia-Euro meet

Australia, NZ excluded from Asia-Euro meet

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP): Asian nations preparing for a summit with Europe in early 1996 agreed yesterday to exclude Australia and New Zealand despite Japan's lobbying for the two to be taken aboard, officials said.

The unprecedented summit in Thailand will include the seven- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with Japan, China and South Korea, senior officials said after a meeting on the summit plans.

Leaders of the 10 Asian nations will face counterparts from 15 European Union members plus the European Commission in an informal, free-flowing set-up. The theme will be forging "a new Asia-Europe partnership."

The summit is an initiative of ASEAN, which includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Delegates to the ongoing ASEAN annual meeting in Brunei said the Asian group reached a consensus that Australia and New Zealand will not be asked to join the first summit, but may be included later on.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans played down the snub yesterday, saying it was "probably only a matter of time" before a consensus was reached on their involvement. "We're relaxed about it," he said.

The summit has been tentatively set for Feb. 29 to March 1 although Japan has yet to confirm it can attend on those dates, which coincide with a parliamentary session.

Asia is already linked to the Americas through the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which will hold a summit in Osaka, Japan, in November to discuss the implementation of a regional free-trade program.

Japan was joined by South Korea in asking that Australia and New Zealand, both APEC members, be included in the summit with Europe, Singapore foreign ministry permanent secretary Kishore Mahbubani said.

But Japan and South Korea accepted the views of the majority, and they "do not want to disrupt the consensus," he said.

He said plans called for leaders to "be able to sit comfortably with each other and talk to each other at the meeting, so they felt that the agenda should be kept very simple and short."

Mahbubani said other nations would be considered for future summits. A European proposal to include foreign ministers as well in the Bangkok summit will be subject to further consultations with the leaders.

Senior officials are to meet in Madrid from Dec. 19-20 to continue preparations for the summit.

Earlier yesterday, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hiroshi Fukuda told journalists that Tokyo was determined to "persuade the others" to include Australia and New Zealand in the summit.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand are taking part in a regional security forum here today, followed by annual ASEAN talks with key allies.

"There are very wide and deep relations between those two countries and the rest of Asia, and our feeling is that maybe the dialogue between Asia and Europe can benefit by having those two countries," Fukuda said.

Malaysia, which is pushing for an East Asian Economic Caucus that would exclude Australia and New Zealand, was the most vocal against bringing the two into the Asia-Europe summit.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Ahmad Badawi warned Saturday that ASEAN might be losing its collective voice in bigger groupings and must not allow itself to be "taken for granted" or "used by others to secure their own interests."