Big power rows could burst Asian bubble: RP

Big power rows could burst Asian bubble: RP

MANILA (Reuter): Big power conflicts could "burst the bubble
of stability" in the Asia-Pacific region and wreck APEC's
potential as the world's biggest free-trade area, Philippine
President Fidel Ramos warned yesterday.

He said even if the major powers kept the military balance
among them, greed arising from unrestrained economic competition
could ruin Asia's inter-connected markets.

Ramos spoke at the opening session of a two-day seminar among
security experts and scholars on Southeast Asian security and the
role of external powers in preserving regional peace.

He urged the integration of China into the Asia-Pacific
community, as western Europe did in integrating post-war Germany
into the European Union, in order to ensure regional stability.

"The regional environment continues to be unsettled because
the big powers have yet to clear up their interests and
intentions," Ramos said.

He cited the need for members of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum to first keep the peace among
themselves.

"Any explosion of violence in any part of the Asia-Pacific
will burst the bubble of stability that keeps its 'economic
miracle' going," he said.

Leaders of the 18 member economies of APEC agreed at a summit
held in the Philippines last week to step up the creation of a
free-trade area encompassing half of the world's wealth.

Ramos said China's intentions in the South China Sea,
widespread fears of the United States reverting to isolationism
and trade tensions between Japan and the United States, which
could affect their bilateral security alliance, were among the
security worries of ASEAN and other small Asian countries.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, groups
Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia,
Vietnam and Brunei. Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are observers and
hope to join the grouping soon.

"China's rapidly expanding economy will unavoidably generate
political and military pressures on the Asia-Pacific, even
assuming that Beijing made no effort to build its capability to
project power beyond its borders," he said.

Ramos said the success of the recent APEC meeting and the
visit to Manila last week of Chinese President Jiang Zemin should
reinforce ASEAN optimism that a solution could be found to the
dispute over the South China Sea's Spratly islands.

The potentially oil-rich reefs are claimed wholly or in part
by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

Ramos said he had suggested to Jiang that dialogue as well as
multilateral talks could help resolve their dispute over the
islands.

"How China exercises its economic, political and military
power must also concern us all - and none more so than we
southeast Asians, who are its closest neighbors."

Another source of uncertainty is the issue of how Japan can
turn into a self-reliant nation in defense matters, he said.
He added: "There is an anomaly and anachronism ... in Japan
remaining a strategic client of the United States.

"This can only fan an unhealthy kind of nationalism in a
nation acutely aware of its political uniqueness and economic
power, increasing the danger that the bitter disputes over trade
between the two countries would spill over into their security
relationship."