Ramos says Vietnam is set to join ASEAN

Ramos says Vietnam is set to join ASEAN

MANILA (Agencies): Vietnam appears set to become the seventh member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but Myanmar is not yet there, Philippine President Fidel Ramos said yesterday.

"The countries that are about to enter into ASEAN, because they have been elevated to a higher status ... are the so-called Indochinese states," he told a news conference.

"It is Vietnam right now which appears to be in the forefront of all the applicants," he added, while stressing that "there must be consensus among the six member countries for any new member to come in."

ASEAN was established by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in 1967. Brunei was admitted later.

Foreign Undersecretary Rodolfo Severino, asked earlier whether Hanoi would become a full-pledged member by next year, told reporters: "Probably. It's possible."

Manila has been the most ardent sponsor of Hanoi's membership bid.

Commenting on appeals by the exiled Myanmarese opposition for ASEAN not to lend legitimacy to Yangon's military junta, Ramos said Myanmar's entry into the regional grouping is "not about to happen."

Myanmarese opposition leader Sein Win, here as a guest of a small Philippine opposition party, urged the ASEAN to refrain from drawing Yangon into the organization, saying the ruling military junta would just use it to obtain legitimacy.

"The military depends on the UN to help ensure the junta's legitimacy," the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader said in an interview published by the Today newspaper here yesterday, referring to Myanmar's isolation.

"And the junta will use the ASEAN for the same end," warned the opposition leader, who is making the rounds of ASEAN capitals to campaign against the organization's policy of "constructive engagement" toward Yangon.

ASEAN has rejected the West's call to isolate the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) over its human rights record.

Thailand has invited Myanmar as guest of the host country at the forthcoming annual ASEAN ministerial meeting in Bangkok.

Too early

Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo said it was too early to consider the question of Myanmar's membership as the matter had not yet been raised in the ASEAN, the official Philippine News Agency reported.

Sein Win said it was difficult to lobby in the region because "there is Chinese support in terms of the selling of arms, trade, construction of buildings, and highways."

He said "Burma (Myanmar) is very attractive to surrounding countries, mainly because of its economic potentials." He singled out Thailand, which he said was "very much interested in energy" following the discovery of a gas deposit in Myanmar, and in logging concessions.

Sein Win, a cousin of jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, fled to a guerrilla zone in southeastern Myanmar several months after the junta refused to accept the opposition's election victory in May, 1990.

He and other politicians from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy who won seats in the polls set up a parallel government, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

Meanwhile, Yangon commander Maj. Gen. Myo Nyunt, speaking to a meeting of army officers, ordered the military to watch closely the movements of opposition politicians.

Myo Nyunt's warning was broadcast on Myanmar's state-run television and monitored in Thailand late on Tuesday.

"The political movements are more active these days and many politicians ... have taken the opportunity to instigate the people and criticize the government, during traditional fairs, funerals, or wedding parties," the television cited Myo Nyunt as saying.