China to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia

China to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia

Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, Beijing

Invigorating political ties alongside booming business links, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will sign a friendship treaty with Southeast Asian nations at an upcoming regional conference and try to accelerate talks on a free-trade area, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Wen will sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' summit on the Indonesian island of Bali that begins next week, said Fu Ying, ministry director general for Asian affairs.

While the treaty carries little substance, the upcoming signing marks another step away from the communist state's long- standing aversion to regional alliances following the signing of a friendship treaty with Russia in 2000.

China has also moved toward integration with its Central Asian neighbors by sponsoring the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an alliance founded in common opposition to Islamic militancy which has since shifted focus to building economic links.

"This accession will be a mark of very important progress in China's relations with Southeast Asia," Fu said.

The 1976 treaty serves as a code of conduct between ASEAN nations, and leaders of the group hope China's accession will help reduce regional conflicts like Beijing's claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea.

"The purpose for China is to further promote political understanding and to signal to ASEAN countries - and to the world - China's willingness to integrate with the countries around China not only economically, but also politically," Fu told reporters at a news briefing.

Last year, China also signed agreements with ASEAN on cooperation against drug trafficking, illegal immigration, piracy and terrorism. Fu said Wen's delegation would sign memorandums on implementing those agreements.

And she said China would try to kick negotiations into high gear on the free trade zone spanning China and ASEAN that the sides say they want established by 2010. China's surging economy has sparked dramatic growth in trade, investments and economic integration with ASEAN and the zone's backers say it would maximize ties by cutting tariffs and red tape.

"We have only seven years to negotiate that agreement and will have to work very hard to meet that date," Fu said.

ASEAN member nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.