Caucus to be on ASEAN agenda

Caucus to be on ASEAN agenda

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss at their meeting in Brunei next week how to bridge differences among members and move forward the stalled East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC), officials said yesterday.

"It is on the agenda, that far I can tell you," said a senior Malaysian foreign ministry official.

Foreign ministry sources said Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi was expected "to make a hard push for the much- delayed EAEC" at the annual ministerial meeting on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Brunei beginning July 28.

ASEAN's senior officials opened yesterday three days of preparatory sessions in Brunei ahead of the historic ministerial meeting that will see Vietnam joining Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as the group's seventh member.

Ahmad Kamil Jaafar, the Malaysian foreign ministry secretary- general leading the Malaysian senior officials' delegation, said in an interview Sunday that the Malaysia-initiated EAEC was expected to be discussed.

"They are likely to discuss how best ASEAN can approach those others whom we have planned to include in the caucus," Kamil said.

The EAEC, mooted in December 1990 by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as a loose consultative caucus for East Asia's fastest growing economies, was earlier targeted for launch at the end 1994 with core members Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and ASEAN members.

But the launch has been stalled by Japan's indecision to join on fears of antagonizing the United States, which sees EAEC as a budding trade bloc, and differences within ASEAN.

Analysts said Indonesia and Singapore, in particular, appeared lukewarm to the EAEC while favoring the larger Asia-Pacific Economic Forum dominated by the United States.

Kamil said ASEAN would have to try "to bridge its own gap in order not to have different nuances in the treatment of EAEC."

"The central thrust is to get the EAEC moving. We have to resurrect the spirit of ASEAN and remind ourselves the need to stay together," Kamil asserted.

Mahathir said recently the EAEC could help realize a World Bank projection that East Asia would be home to six of the world's biggest economies led by China by 2020.

An EAEC without Japan would not serve the objective of its formation, Kamil said, adding he was confident that "the EAEC will survive time and eventually take off."