EC vice president to attend ASEAN talks

JAKARTA (JP): European Commission (EC) Vice President Manuel Marin is due to arrive here on Monday to participate in the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN post ministerial meeting.

The European Commission representative in Jakarta said yesterday that Marin will also hold bilateral talks with Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and other cabinet ministers.

He may also meet with President Soeharto on July 26.

The talks will cover a range of issues of mutual interest such as economic and development cooperation, development of EC- Indonesia relations and aspects of the ASEAN talks.

The representative said Marin's visit is taking place at a "significant point" in the relations between the EC and ASEAN since both have taken several initiatives to seek more dynamic relations toward the next century.

In 1994, the EC launched a "New Strategy for Asia". This year, it launched "Europe-Asia Forum on Culture, Values and Technology".

Last March, ASEAN initiated the first Asia-Europe meeting in Bangkok. Twenty-two heads of states participated in the conference.

Marin sparked a debate earlier this week when he warned that ASEAN's insistence to establish links with the Myanmarese military junta could endanger EU-ASEAN relations.

Alatas said Thursday that other countries and organizations had no right to dictate whether the association should or should not accept Myanmar in its midst.

"We in ASEAN have the right to decide who becomes a member and who will become an observer," he said.

Malaysia's secretary-general of foreign affairs, Ahmad Kamil Jaafar, said that Europe was being hypocritical on issues of human rights. (pan)