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.