EU cancels talks with Asia nations over Myanmar row

Agencies, Luxembourg/Jakarta/Hanoi

The European Union (EU) on Monday canceled two upcoming meetings with Asian partners because of a rift over the attendance of military-ruled Myanmar, casting serious doubt over an October regional summit.

A finance ministers' meeting next month of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) dialog in Brussels, as well as a September meeting of ASEM economy ministers in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, had been canceled, officials said in Luxembourg.

Meanwhile, Indonesia - a member of the ASEM forum and the current leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - expressed concern over the EU's cancellation plan.

"We (Indonesian government) would find it (the cancellation) extremely regrettable," Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs's spokesman Marty A. Natalegawa told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"We should restrain from trying to outdo one another in a kind to show concern about the developments in Myanmar. For, in fact, we all share a common wish for the satisfactory resolution to the situation in that country" he said.

By canceling the ASEM meetings, said Marty, the EU countries appeared to fail to recognize the strategic importance of the ASEM process, which on the Asian side brings together countries significant global economic and political players with vibrant democracies.

Myanmar's partners in ASEAN have insisted that if the EU was going to invite its recent additions, the military junta should be represented at the Brussels talks, along with the two other most recent additions to ASEAN -- Cambodia and Laos.

But Britain, Myanmar's former colonial power, has pressed hard for Yangon to be kept out of the six-year-old forum because of the junta's repression of political opponents, and in particular the house arrest of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Netherlands on Monday proposed a compromise -- observer status for the EU's new members and the Asian trio -- to ensure that scheduled meetings of ASEM finance ministers in July and the economic ministers in September could go ahead.

But diplomats said this was rejected by Britain and the EU newcomer states, leading the bloc to cancel those meetings and leaving the dilemma unresolved just four months before an ASEM summit which is due to take place in Hanoi, Vietnam.

"Since there is as yet no agreed position between both sides on the issue of enlargement, the European side will be unable to participate in ASEM meetings between now and the Hanoi summit (in October)," said Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

In Vietnam -- the host of the next ASEM summit -- a diplomat source said that Hanoi was now battling to hammer out a compromise between EU and ASEAN that would allow Myanmar to attend the summit to be held in Hanoi in October.

The EU must be represented at international meetings by all its 25 nations, said Cowen after the decision to cancel the upcoming ministerial meeting by EU foreign minister at talks in Luxembourg.

The cancellation of the two ministerial encounters raises major doubts over whether the October summit in the Vietnamese capital can go ahead, if ASEAN sticks to its stance.

The dispute has sharpened as the EU prepares to send its foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, to represent it at regular security talks of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Jakarta on June 30-July 2.

Solana denied the EU stand would leave him isolated at the talks in the Indonesian capital.

"We will not feel embarrassed at all. I think the embarrassment should be for Burma (Myanmar)," he said.

ASEM groups the 15 old members of EU, seven members of the 10- nation ASEAN, plus China, Japan and South Korea.

In another development, Marty also expressed concern about the United States' renewal of a one-year ban on imports from Myanmar, saying sanctions would likely not bring positive results.

"Indonesian government continues to believe dialog and engagement with the government of Myanmar offers a better prospect than sanctions against that country," Marty told the Post.

"It is our belief the prospect of further isolation would not bring about positive changes in Myanmar," he added.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution renewing the one-year ban on all imports from Myanmar for abuse of human rights and repression of the democratic opposition led by Suu Kyi.