Indonesia seeks more cooperation in ASEAN

Indonesia seeks more cooperation in ASEAN

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia will propose the establishment of a stronger, more
effective Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) security
agreement to be further discussed at a ministerial meeting in
June.

The talks will emphasize the importance for ASEAN countries to
further strengthen cooperation on political and security issues
in the face of global security challenges, Indonesian Minister of
Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday.

"We will propose the concept, which is not just a defense pact
or security cooperation pact, but an agreement that covers all
aspects of politics and security," Hassan said.

He cited the Iraq crisis as an example of ASEAN's failure in
addressing the issue as a united region and to solve conflict
between member countries.

"In the past five years we have been concentrating more on
economic cooperation, while to have a strong ASEAN we need to
balance that with political cooperation," Hassan remarked.

Indonesia will assume the ASEAN presidency next month in the
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Phnom Penh and host an ASEAN
summit in October on Bali.

The first ASEAN summit was held on the resort island in 1976,
which resulted in a document known as the Bali Concord, which
emphasized cooperation among member countries in both economics
and politics.

However, it was obvious shortly thereafter that many issues
affected by political interests failed to unite ASEAN in
addressing the issues, as was the case in the recent Iraq crisis.

Several ASEAN member countries supported the United States-led
attack on Iraq, while others opposed the war without UN
authorization.

"The failure of conflict resolution among us (ASEAN), provides
loopholes for other countries to interfere. It is important
therefore to build ASEAN's political power," the minister said.

Another proposal Indonesia will present in the coming meetings
will be on integrated maritime security cooperation.

"We need to have more integrated cooperation to deal with sea
piracy, smuggling, pollution and other maritime activities,"
Hassan said.

Indonesia acknowledged that there had been cooperation among
member countries to deal with maritime security issues, but
implementation had been weak.

The meeting will take place from June 16 to June 20, and will
include the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Post Ministerial
Conference (PMC) meetings.

Sources at the foreign ministry said that there was a
possibility that ASEAN member countries will sign several
security cooperation agreements with China and Russia during the
meeting.

Another joint statement between ASEAN and Japan is also under
discussion and will be discussed in Phnom Penh.