RI to act as coordinator in PMC dialog with U.S.

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will act as the coordinating country for member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during its dialog with the United States at the upcoming Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) here next week.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas told journalists yesterday that, accompanied by ASEAN senior officials, he will be facing his American counterpart.

"Indonesia is coordinating country for the dialog with the United States, so I will be sitting face to face with Secretary of State Warren Christopher, but I will be flanked by senior officials from ASEAN," he said.

The annual Post Ministerial Conference is scheduled to be held on July 24 to July 25. It brings together the seven members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- with its dialog partners.

ASEAN's dialog partners are Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Apart from a plenary session involving all participating foreign ministers, ASEAN would also hold separate meetings with the individual dialog partners.

Previously, all seven ASEAN foreign ministers would gather to meet with the dialog states' ministers one by one.

However, as the number of dialog partners expanded, the number of ASEAN ministers meeting one dialog partner has decreased. Last year, the formula called for three ASEAN foreign ministers accompanied by senior officials to meet with a dialog partner's minister.

This year, Indonesia proposed that one ASEAN minister acting as coordinator for the accompanying senior officials from the other six ASEAN states meet with one of the dialog partners.

This proposal was put forward and accepted because of the growing size of the PMC.

China, India and Russia are the newest members of the Post Ministerial Conference.

Each ASEAN member has thus been assigned to coordinate talks with a dialog partner. Brunei will coordinate talks with Australia; Indonesia with the U.S.; Malaysia with Canada and China; the Philippines with Korea; Singapore with the European Union; India and Thailand with Japan; and Vietnam with India and Russia.

"We hope we can hold simultaneous meetings and conclude them within the two days," he said.

The two-day Post Ministerial Conference wraps up a week of meetings, which begins with an ASEAN ministerial meeting on Saturday.

Speaking on the proposal to designate all seven ASEAN states under one time zone, Alatas said Indonesia welcomes it. However, "it needs to be studied further," he said. "Indonesia alone has three different time zones, each an hour apart."

He explained that the western Indonesian time zone, where Jakarta is located, could probably be considered for the suggestion, since Thailand and Vietnam are also on the same zone.

"The problem of different time zones in eastern and central parts of Indonesia can't be easily resolved," he said, adding that a special working group has been established to study the merits of the proposal. (mds)