Cambodia ends isolation, enters ASEAN

Cambodia ends isolation, enters ASEAN

HANOI (AFP): Cambodia joined ASEAN on Friday in a ceremony in Hanoi, shaking off decades of international isolation and fulfilling the regional group's dream of embracing all 10 Southeast Asian neighbors.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and his counterparts from the nine other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) members signed the Declaration on the Admission of Cambodia.

"This is a watershed event in the history of Southeast Asia and ASEAN," Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas told AFP just before the signing.

Cambodia was for years shunned as a pariah state owing to the genocidal 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and the years of civil war that followed, and its entry into ASEAN is seen as a triumph back home.

"I feel very happy today that Cambodia is becoming a full member of ASEAN," said Prince Norodom Ranariddh, president of the National Assembly, in Phnom Penh.

Some critics have argued that Cambodia's admission will place further strain on the organization whose membership already has sharply contrasting views on how to deal with each other's internal affairs.

But the criticism was shrugged off by ASEAN secretary general Rodolfo Severino, who said it would strengthen the group as it secures a foothold in the global economy.

"ASEAN has always been diverse from the beginning, diversity has always been with us and has to be dealt with," he told AFP.

"The important thing is for Southeast Asians to get together and attain solidarity because that is the only way for each country to survive in the globalized economy, in the kind of the world that is emerging.

"Why keep out one country? That would require some explanation. What we have been striving for from the beginning is not a Southeast Asia that is divided between ASEAN and non ASEAN," he added.

Cambodia's formal admission was a compromise decision by ASEAN leaders at a summit here last December.

Then, ASEAN leaders were deeply divided about the timing of Cambodia's entry, which had been prematurely announced by the Vietnamese.

In a face-saving gesture, it was agreed Hanoi could hold a ceremony "at a later date," once assurances were received that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had established a full government with his former rival for power, Prince Ranariddh.

Cambodia was originally to have joined ASEAN in 1997, but its membership was put on hold when a bitter feud between then co- premiers Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh flared into bloody street battles.

Prince Ranariddh was ousted from Phnom Penh in fierce fighting in July that year and fled to neighboring Thailand.

Following polls last July, Hun Sen has become sole prime minister with Prince Ranariddh as National Assembly chairman.

Friday's admission ceremony was more symbolic than substantive, with some ASEAN foreign ministers arriving in Hanoi just one hour before the signing took place.

"It had always been planned as a ceremonial thing. We will be talking with one another informally about certain things, but there is no official agenda to pick up anything of substance," Alatas told AFP.

The signing also falls on an auspicious day for Hanoi, the 24th anniversary of the fall of Saigon -- now Ho Chi Minh City -- marking the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

Some observers say Cambodia's admission is key to Vietnam's aspirations of playing a leading role in ASEAN.

"By getting Hun Sen legitimately accepted by all and sundry, they have indirectly legitimatized their actions in 1979," said one Asian ambassador.

That year Vietnamese troops drove Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot from Phnom Penh, ending the four-year reign of terror of his Maoist-inspired movement, blamed for the genocide of up to two million people.

Vietnam installed a Hanoi-backed government which ruled for the next decade in which Hun Sen was foreign minister.

Opposition forces in Cambodia in the past have accused Hun Sen of being a "puppet" of the Vietnamese, and the Cambodian prime minister did not travel to Hanoi for Friday's ceremony.

ASEAN now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.