EU pitches new bid to rescue ASEAN talks

EU pitches new bid to rescue ASEAN talks

ELTVILLE, Germany (AFP): European Union foreign ministers on
Sunday agreed a new initiative aimed at salvaging relations with
ASEAN, currently on ice because of a dispute over contacts with
Myanmar, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said.

At talks here the ministers proposed downgrading an EU-ASEAN
ministerial meeting scheduled to take place in Berlin on March 30
in the hope that this will enable it to go ahead.

The talks, due to take place at foreign ministerial level,
look certain to be scrapped because of ASEAN's refusal to accept
the EU's position that Myanmar's foreign minister Win Aung cannot
attend.

Under the proposal adopted Sunday, the talks would go ahead
but instead of all 15 member states being present, the EU would
be represented by a troika of Austria, Germany and Finland.

The hope is that this would persuade the seven longer
established ASEAN members to take part without Myanmar, which
joined ASEAN in 1997 along with Laos.

"We regret that we could not have a full ministerial meeting
without Burma (Myanmar)," Fischer said.

Foreign ministers from the seven countries -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and
Vietnam -- will be in Berlin on March 29 for a meeting of the
broader Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum, which also includes
China, Japan and South Korea.

The EU and ASEAN have been at odds over relations with
Myanmar's military dictatorship since the summer of 1997, when
the country was brought into the south east Asian grouping in the
face of intense opposition from the United States and Europe.

Since then there has been no formal contact between the two
blocs and attempts to get relations back on track -- even at the
level of officials -- have repeatedly broken down over the issue
of Myanmar's involvement.

The row reflects broader differences over how to deal with
Myanmar,s junta. ASEAN has pursued a policy of constructive
engagement while the EU, backed by the United States, argues that
the country should be isolated over its human rights abuses and
role in the global drugs trade.

Current EU sanctions include a visa ban which prevents senior
figures in the military regime from entering any EU country.
Although Germany was ready to grant an exemption to allow Win
Aung to come to Berlin, the move was strongly opposed by Britain,
Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Despite insisting that Myanmar must be included in any EU-
ASEAN talks in the name of regional solidarity, ASEAN has shown
some signs that it is willing to be flexible in order to get its
contacts with Europe back on the rails.

At a meeting in Singapore last month, ASEAN called for an
early meeting of senior officials to explore ways to overcome the
current differences.