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.