KL opposes expansion of ASEAN members
KL opposes expansion of ASEAN members
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia yesterday objected categorically to proposals by certain counterparts in ASEAN to expand membership to non-Southeast Asian nations, asserting that ASEAN's identity should be preserved.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should consolidate after its expansion into a 10-member grouping to encompass Burma, Cambodia and Laos by the year 2000.
"Of late, however, some of us in ASEAN appear to be going through some kind of identity crisis," he told the seventh Southeast Asia forum organized by ASEAN and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia's independent think-tank.
"The admission of non-Southeast Asian nations has been advocated. The reason presumably is the growing economic linkages of these states with Southeast Asia besides their geographical proximity to the region," he said.
Abdullah's remarks followed reports in January that quoted Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as saying Australia and New Zealand could join ASEAN in the future.
While making no direct reference to Singapore's overtures, Abdullah said if ASEAN used the growing economic linkages and geographical proximity as the yardstick, "very soon, China, and perhaps India should be members of ASEAN."
Coincidentally, U.S. ambassador Frank Wisner said last Saturday that India, which recently became a dialog partner of ASEAN, would end up being part of ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in a few years.
Formed in 1967, ASEAN now groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and has a secretariat based in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
Abdullah said ASEAN would run the risk of losing its identity if its membership lines were blurred.
"We must draw the line somewhere," Abdullah said, expressing Malaysia's wishes to hold the line in Southeast Asia. But he was quick to add that Malaysia was not advocating a closing of Southeast Asia or a "circling of the wagons."
ASEAN could conduct the fullest of engagements with all significant economic and political powers through the ASEAN dialog process, grouping-to-grouping relations, and through common participation in larger regional processes.
He named APEC, of which ASEAN is a member, and the ASEAN Regional Forum as the platforms on which ASEAN could build stronger economic and political ties with the outside world.
Among ASEAN itself, Abdullah said members should curb the occasional temptation for unilateral initiative without adequate prior consultation.
"We must guard against a loss in cohesion," Abdullah said, while warning that a compromise of the principle of consensus would undermine ASEAN's integrity as a powerful regional economic and political player.