Japan calls for expansion of ASEAN security group

Japan calls for expansion of ASEAN security group

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Asia-Pacific's main umbrella security grouping, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), needs to be expanded to meet the increasing threats facing the region, a senior Japanese defense official said on Sunday.

Minister of State for Defense and head of the Japan Defense Agency, Gen. Nakatani said ARF needed to assume a wider role now countries in the region were working together to tackle security issues.

"With increased globalization and interdependence among countries, nations are being forced to deal with security issues in a regional context rather than as a concern for individual countries." Nakatani told an Asia security forum here.

"Therefore, there is an increased necessity to structure a multilateral security framework participated in by the defense authorities of each country which are directly involved in and responsible for maintaining peace and stability in the region," he said.

The role of the 23-member ARF remains too restrictive for members to take a pro-active approach toward threats facing the region, Nakatani said.

"At the moment we have the ASEAN Regional Forum as a multilateral framework in this region. However, ARF still remains a place for dialogs, and the role of the defense authorities has been limited," he said.

The annual ARF meetings, to discuss pressing regional security and political concerns, involve foreign ministers and not defense delegates.

"From such respect, I think we must either expand ARF or take a step forward using ARF as a springboard."

Established in 1994, ARF includes the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states, as well as Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Outside the foreign ministers meeting, ARF members hold talks among their military chiefs, compare notes on defense expenditures and keep each other informed on military exercises.

The ARF is different from European-style multilateral institutions. It is non-legalistic and avoids binding and intrusive approaches to security cooperation.

Nakatani proposed that a framework for dialogs be established so that "the defense policies of the individual countries, as well as arms control and disarmament issues" could be discussed.