Cambodia's ASEAN entry confirmed

Cambodia's ASEAN entry confirmed

SINGAPORE (AFP): ASEAN's chairman Singapore confirmed last
Saturday that a special ceremony to admit Cambodia into the
grouping will be held in Hanoi on April 30, finally unifying all
10 countries in the region.

A spokesman for Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar,
chairman of the standing committee of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the minister had formally
invited Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong to attend the
ceremony.

"The foreign minister of Cambodia has confirmed his attendance
at the ceremony," the spokesman said.

In Phnom Penh, a close aide to Prime Minister Hun Sen -- who
had lobbied hard for Cambodia's admission when he attended an
ASEAN summit in the Vietnamese capital last December -- welcomed
the Singapore announcement.

"This is a great step for ASEAN because it fulfills the
ambition of the founders to extend cooperation in the region and
highlights the new confidence the region has in Cambodia," the
aide said.

The announcement followed consultations by Vietnam with other
ASEAN members following the group's December summit, during which
the Vietnamese tried in earnest to convince the other members to
admit Cambodia immediately.

The April 30 ceremony will finally bring all 10 Southeast
Asian countries into the grouping, ending political divisions
dating back to the Cold War.

ASEAN was founded in 1967. Its present members are Brunei,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.

Cambodia was supposed to have been admitted in July 1997 but
political infighting in Phnom Penh, which saw Hun Sen oust his
then co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh, forced a postponement.

The election of a new government led by Hun Sen last year
paved the way for admission.

Some members including Singapore, however, insisted on the
formation of a senate for the new Cambodian parliament before
lifting all their objections to the country's full entry.

ASEAN's next foreign ministers' meeting, including a security
forum to be attended by the world's leading military powers, will
be held in Singapore in July.

A Singapore-based diplomat from a key ASEAN member country
told AFP that the admission of Cambodia was a victory for the
"authoritarian" wing in ASEAN, whose members range from
freewheeling democracies like the Philippines and Thailand to
army-ruled Myanmar and communist Vietnam.

"Definitely it strengthens the hand of the authoritarian wing
in ASEAN. The Philippines and Thailand will have to argue harder
to be heard," he said.

"But that also depends on how Indonesia turns out. If the next
government turns out to be more liberal, then it's going to even
out the equation because they're the biggest. But if Indonesia
turns farther to the right, then it's different," he added.

In June Indonesia will hold its first national elections since
last year's fall of veteran strongman Soeharto.