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."