East Timor and Myanmar issues stall Europe-ASEAN talks

East Timor and Myanmar issues stall Europe-ASEAN talks

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Moves to deepen ties between Europe and
Southeast Asia stalled yesterday over how to deal with Myanmar
and East Timor, delegates said.

They said senior officials from the 15-nation European Union
and the seven members of the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) could not agree on wording for a final
declaration that indirectly deals with the thorny issues.

But Hans van Mierlo, Dutch Foreign Minister and co-chairman of
a two-day ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting, said he did not think
these issues would delay progress.

"I really think that we will find a solution for that. We will
find for both sides a satisfying way of dealing with it," van
Mierlo told reporters.

Senior officials said the major topic at the preparatory
meeting for the ministerial discussions today and tomorrow was
Myanmar, but the fight between Portugal and Indonesia over East
Timor was the major stumbling block.

"The Portuguese will not agree any declaration that could bind
them to extending relations with Indonesia or ASEAN while
perceived human rights problems in East Timor remain unresolved,"
said an EU official who declined to be named.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated into
Indonesia in 1976, but the UN still acknowledges Lisbon as the
administrator of the territory.

But the single biggest topic of debate yesterday was Myanmar,
which has been promised ASEAN membership along with Laos and
Cambodia, possibly as early as this year, delegates said.
ASEAN groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The officials talked about Myanmar for about two-and-a-half
hours, Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rodolfo Severino
told reporters.

Rights

The London-based human rights group Amnesty International said
yesterday political repression and human rights violations in
Myanmar last year reached their highest levels since the
suppression of a popular uprising at the end of the 1980s.

Myanmar's military government dismissed the scathing Amnesty
report as "ridiculous", and called it propaganda for anti-Myanmar
organizations.

Myanmar's membership is particularly vexing because the
European parliament has repeatedly warned the European Commission
-- the EU's executive -- that it will not tolerate dealings with
Yangon.

A draft copy of the final declaration obtained by Reuters has
two possible endings. One option calls for an action plan to
deepen ties. The other is much more muted, underlining the
"strong commitment" of both sides to deepen ties.

Foreign ministers will discuss the declaration today and
tomorrow.

The economic stakes in improving ties between the two regions
are enormous.

ASEAN was the EU's second largest export market in 1995 and
third largest trading partner after Japan and the United States.

The EU is the second largest investor after Japan in ASEAN,
whose combined population of 400 million represents a potential
market larger than Europe.

Van Mierlo said ASEAN and the EU were looking to expand ties
to new areas such as the environment, international terrorism,
organized crime and drug trafficking in addition to deeper trade
ties.

"These days are of vital importance for the future," he said.
If we leave it to the current trends then we face the possibility
that all (this) is going to slow down."

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