Malaysia urges Rice to attend ASEAN security forum in Laos
Malaysia urges Rice to attend ASEAN security forum in Laos
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday to attend a Southeast Asian security meeting in Laos later this month.
The United States has said Rice will skip the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the post-ministerial conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations annual meeting in Vientiane.
"I'm sure if she attends for one or two days, it will not divert her agenda on trying to find a resolution to the various problems in the Middle East because these are long-term problems," said Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar.
"Just deciding not to attend, I don't think it sends a good signal," he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.
On Monday, Syed Hamid said Rice's decision to skip the meeting was "regrettable" and indicated Washington was losing interest in the region.
But he disagreed with speculation that the United States was attempting to pressure ASEAN into making sure that military-ruled Myanmar did not take up chairmanship of the group next year.
"They have given us the reason that they are very occupied with the Middle East," he said. "It has sent a very uneasy signal. This is the first time -- it is unusual."
Asked if Rice's decision not to attend could be viewed as a U.S. snub to ASEAN, Syed Hamid said: "You cannot help such perception to be considered because it has never happened before".
Concerns over Myanmar, also known as Burma, have become a sticking point, and Washington has warned that ASEAN's reputation would be tarnished if Yangon took up the rotating leadership of the 10-member grouping.
Speaking in Thailand, Rice urged Southeast Asian nations to press the junta to reform and said there could be a "possible case for reconciliation" if it freed opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
The meeting in the Lao capital from July 28 to July 29 includes dialogue between ASEAN and its key trading partners, notably the United States, the European Union, China, Japan and Russia, as well as the ARF, the only official security meeting in the Asia-Pacific region.
Analysts have warned that Rice's non-attendance could hurt U.S. credentials in the region and deepen doubts over Southeast Asia's importance to U.S. foreign policy-makers.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick will represent Washington at the talks.
It will be the first time in about two decades that a U.S. secretary of state has not attended the annual ASEAN foreign ministers' summit and the ARF.