Bangkok summit a resounding success

Bangkok summit a resounding success

By Riyadi and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

BANGKOK (JP): Leaders from Asia and Europe wound up their historic first summit yesterday charting a path to foster relations between equals in place of the colonial ties that once existed between the two regions.

The summit chairman, Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-Archa, told a media conference that the 25 leaders reached wide-ranging agreements in their two-day meeting, from the establishment of a working group to draft an investment action plan to a proposal on building a railway link from East Asia to Europe.

"We have achieved more than we expected, in economics, politics and other areas.... We will establish a number of working groups to follow up on this meeting," Banharn said.

In the economic sector, the leaders agreed to boost trade and investment flows between the two regions within the framework of multilateral arrangements.

In politics, they committed themselves to strengthening ties based on equality, non-interference and mutual understanding to create a new partnership between the two regions.

They agreed on other sectors such as enhancing cooperation on poverty alleviation, promoting women roles and environmental issues, fighting the drug trade, money laundering, terrorism, and strengthening cultural links between Asia and Europe.

"Asians understand Europeans better than Europeans understand us. So, we need to develop more understanding among our people," Banharn said.

"We conducted the meeting in an informal manner. And in such an informal atmosphere, we normally solve many problems, including delicate ones," Banharn said.

The President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, said in the same media conference he recognized that the two regions have differences on many sensitive and controversial issues.

"In my political experience, delicate issues are not solved by shouting across the fence. They require dialogs and mutual understanding," Santer said.

Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini who currently chairs the European Union stressed that the meeting was aimed at fostering confidence and understanding among Asian and European leaders, who are working out their differences as equal partners.

Dini said the focus of the meeting was not on solving such delicate matters, but on promoting trade and investment in both regions as well as creating a better understanding among the people.

Fifteen members of the European Union are represented at the meeting: These are Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, British Prime Minister John Major, Finish Prime Minister Tapio Lipponen, French President Jacques Chirac, Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen; German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister George Romeos; Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, Luxembourgeois Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, Spanish Foreign Minister Carlos Westendorp and Swedish Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen.

The 10 Asian leaders taking part are Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Chinese Premier Li Peng, Indonesia's President Soeharto, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, South Korean President Kim Young-sam, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, Philippine President Fidel Ramos, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-Archa and Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.

Also attending is the European Commission President Jacques Santer.

Prime Minister Banharn issued a "chairman statement" at the end of the summit yesterday giving details of the some of the agreements reached by the leaders.

To enhance trade between the two regions, the leaders recognized the need to bring down their respective trade barriers within the framework of the World Trade Organization.

They underlined the need to bring the unfinished topics of the Uruguay Round of talks under WTO -- maritime transport, telecommunication and financial services -- to successful conclusions.

They agreed to work closely together towards the first ministerial meeting of the WTO in Singapore in December and consult closely on new issues for the WTO agenda.

They also agreed to undertake facilitation and liberalization measures involving the simplification and improvement of customs procedures and standard conformance.

They also agreed to encourage the business and private sectors, including small and medium enterprises, to forge closer cooperation with one another.

Dini said Europe has great experience in developing small and medium enterprises to be dynamic, productive and creative, producing new products of good quality.

"We expect in the future there will be many joint ventures between European and Asian companies, including small and medium enterprises," Dini said.

To facilitate cooperation between Asian and European businesses, the leaders set follow up measures, including periodic meetings of foreign and economic ministers, senior officials as well as of government and private sector working group.

Although a series of meetings and a number of working groups will follow the summit, Dini said that ASEM will not be institutionalized.

Separately, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad said the possibility of the forum being more formalized still remains on the horizon.

"I can't really say that it wouldn't be formalized," said Mahathir on the prospect of the ASEM in the future years.

On the possibility of Australian and New Zealand membership, Mahathir flatly rejected such suggestions.

"I cannot accept the definition that Australia and New Zealand are parts of East Asia or Asia," Mahathir said.

However, when asked about the possible membership of India and Pakistan, Mahathir expressed keenness but stressed that what is more important is a deepening of the ASEM rather than immediate expansion of membership.

"For the time being, we agreed that we would not expand membership," Mahathir said.

Leaders also agreed to schedule a second ASEM in London two years from now.

New ties -- Page 2