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."