China seeks closer dialog with ASEAN

China seeks closer dialog with ASEAN

BEIJING (Agencies): China wants greater dialog with ASEAN nations, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen told his Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas, while dismissing concerns over China's nuclear testing program.

During a meeting here late Wednesday, Qian said China attached great importance to its relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), citing the grouping's role in promoting regional peace and stability.

Alatas, who arrived Wednesday for a three-day official visit, said Indonesia would continue to help coordinate and cement Sino- ASEAN relations.

ASEAN groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei and will add Vietnam later this month.

The foreign ministers' two-hour talks also touched on Jakarta's concerns over China's nuclear testing program, but Qian stressed that Beijing had shown "great restraint" -- carrying out far fewer tests that the other declared nuclear powers had done in the past.

Alatas was scheduled to hold talks with premier Li Peng yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in Canberra, Britain wanted to be included as a dialog partner in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia and the Pacific's main vehicle for security talks, Britain's high commissioner in Australia said yesterday.

"Britain ought to be an ARF dialog partner," High Commissioner Roger Carrick told reporters in Canberra.

He said the British government had pushed for inclusion at an informal level with some of the region's governments.

"There is some support for it around," he said.

The 18-member forum met for the first time in Bangkok in July last year.

The forum includes the ASEAN six, United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Vietnam and the European Union.

The ARF holds its second major meeting to be attended by foreign ministers and defense ministers in Brunei from July 31 to Aug. 3.

Carrick said Britain's historical role in the region and its ability to help analyze the region's security problems meant it should be involved in the ARF.

Britain is still a member of the Five Powers Defense Arrangement (FPDA), along with Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. "But it's much more than the FPDA," he said.

"There is our historical role and the contribution that we can make in the analysis of the sort of security problems I mentioned," he said.

He was referring in particular to the dispute among China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and others over the potentially oil-rich Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Carrick said he hoped the United States, Australia and others in the region supported Britain's push for dialog partner status, though there was not much support for Britain's push in Australia.

"We would hope for Australia's, the United States' and everybody else's support," he said.