RI says ASEM summit will go ahead despite row

RI says ASEM summit will go ahead despite row

Agence France-Presse Jakarta

Indonesia expressed confidence on Wednesday the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled for October in Vietnam would go ahead despite a dispute about Myanmar's participation.

"Asia and the 15 members of the European Union realize the importance of this process," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said, referring to the European Union (EU) before this year's expansion.

"Therefore I'm confident that all parties feel it is imperative that ASEM not be sidetracked and its role not be diminished only because of the issue of Myanmar," Hassan said.

"I have an impression that the Vietnam summit will take place as scheduled," he told reporters.

The biennial meeting of ASEM's heads of state or government, planned for Hanoi in October, had been put at risk from the European Union's insistence military-ruled Myanmar should not attend.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countered if Myanmar could not participate, neither could the EU's 10 new member nations.

An ASEM finance ministers' meeting scheduled for next week and a September gathering of the group's economy ministers had already been canceled over the dispute.

EU foreign ministers agreed earlier this month to send former Dutch foreign minister Hans van den Broek for a 10-day tour of Asia in an attempt to end the deadlock.

The ministers demanded "a signal" that Myanmar's military, which has ruled the nation since 1962, is prepared to allow a degree of democratic opening, including releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.