China, Japan and South Korea meet Southeast Asian partners
China, Japan and South Korea meet Southeast Asian partners
Peter Harmsen, Agence France-Presse/Vientiane
Ministers from East Asian giants China, Japan and South Korea met
their Southeast Asian partners on Wednesday for talks diplomats
said would cover trade and steps toward forming a new regional
community.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing was however to make an
early departure from Association of Southeast Asian Nation
(ASEAN) meetings in Vientiane, skipping annual security talks
with other ASEAN partners starting on Thursday.
His absence, along with that of U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka
Machimura, is seen by many as a snub to the ASEAN Regional Forum,
(ARF) expected to focus on anti-terrorism measures.
The talks between the ASEAN foreign ministers and Li, South
Korea's Ban Ki-moon and Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Ichiro
Aisawa were likely to focus on plans to create the world's
largest free-trade zone covering most of East Asia, a diplomat
said.
They would also touch on an East Asia Summit scheduled for
December, which will bring together the 10 ASEAN countries,
China, Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia and
could start the process of establishing a new East Asia community
which could be modeled on the European Union.
South Korea was also due to sign an agreement to cooperate
with ASEAN on fighting terrorism, which China and Japan have
already agreed to.
The meeting in Laos came against the backdrop of six-nation
talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear program.
"The six-nation talks are proceeding smoothly," Li said as he
emerged from a meeting with Ban before talks with the ASEAN
ministers.
The six-party negotiations involve China, the two Koreas, the
United States, Japan and Russia.
But for ASEAN the focus was on China, which appears to be
gradually assuming a regional leadership role seemingly abandoned
by regional rival Japan and has growing influence among Southeast
Asian nations living in its shadow.
"China, with the growth of its economy, is bound to play a
greater role in the region, and so far China has been playing a
constructive role," said Sihasak Phuangketkeow, a spokesman of
the Thai foreign ministry.
"Of course, people see the growth of China's economy as
leading to more competition, but at the same time there are
immense opportunities."
China has been carefully building its relations with Southeast
Asia, beginning with its decision in the late 1990s to keep its
currency stable even as competitive devaluations were rocking the
region.
More recent Chinese moves applauded in the region include
willingness to sign on to steps to dismantle tensions in the
potentially oil-rich South China Sea and plans for the East Asia
trade area.
But behind the smiles and friendly handshakes that accompanied
Li's visit to Vientiane were concerns in Southeast Asia about
what China's rise means for the region, analysts said.
"The rising clout of China is viewed with ambivalence by
ASEAN," said Tai Wei Lim, an expert on ASEAN at Cornell
University. "Chinese power is both feared and welcomed."
The fact that both China and the United States compete for
influence also gives the otherwise relatively weak powers in the
region some measure of influence, according to analysts.
The ASEAN states "try to use the United States as a counter-
balance against the rise of China's military power," said Shee
Poon Kim, an international affairs scholar at Taiwan's Wenzao
Ursuline College of Languages.