RI welcomes Vietnam in ASEAN: Alatas

By Pandaya

BANGKOK (JP): Indonesia has thrown its weight behind proposals that socialist Vietnam be granted membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"There is no problem if Vietnam joins ASEAN," said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas.

Alatas flew to the Thai capital to attend the 27th ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting, scheduled to be opened by Thailand's Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai today.

Vietnam's application to join ASEAN, a regional economic grouping comprising Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, had been under intense scrutiny in the three-day meeting of ASEAN senior officials which ended yesterday.

All the six member countries have, in principle, backed swift ASEAN membership for Vietnam which, together with Laos and Papua New Guinea, has been granted observer status at the gathering.

But one senior official who preferred to remain anonymous said that Thailand is not happy with Vietnam's entry to the grouping because there was centuries old enmity between the two countries. Neither was Singapore, for reasons undisclosed.

"It's amazing. Vietnam has left Cambodia and is prospering but such sentiment continues to linger on," the official said, referring to the decade of Vietnam's military presence in Cambodia which began in the 1970's.

Alatas, who has just recovered from heart surgery, said he is optimistic of Vietnam's economic growth and that Hanoi will be able to catch up with ASEAN members.

He said that Vietnam joining the regional grouping was no longer a matter of "if" but "when," and that the realization was only a matter of procedure.

Thai Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri had earlier said that Bangkok would propose the formation of a working group to pave the way for Vietnam's membership into ASEAN.

Soonsiri launched the initiative after ASEAN senior officials, who laid the groundwork for today's ministerial meeting, reached an agreement to invite the former ideological enemy to become the seventh member of the grouping.

Alatas said that another crucial forum in the week-long conference would be a meeting on security of foreign ministers in the new ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which was conceived in a previous meeting in Singapore.

ARF consists of the ASEAN six, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, consultative partners China and Russia and seven dialog partners Japan, Canada, Australia, the United States, South Korea, New Zealand and the European Union.

On top of the agenda will be security in the Asia-Pacific region, especially the smoldering conflict over the Spratlys, which are claimed in the whole or in part by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

ZOPFAN

Alatas said Indonesia wants to see participants focus on "concrete actions" to improve transparency and "confidence building measures" which lead to the solution of the conflict.

He said all the countries concerned in the security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region should adhere to the code of conduct contained in the concept of ZOPFAN (Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality.

Spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Shen Guofang said in a press conference yesterday that Beijing would stick to the Manila Declaration which binds all the conflicting claimants not to use force to settle the Spratlys problem.

"China wants open bilateral talks to settle the conflict," Shen said.

Manila plans to raise its concern over recent construction of a lighthouse on the edge of the Spratlys territories by Vietnam.

Indonesia has sponsored four seminars on the disputed oil-rich Spratlys by bringing the claimant countries together to build confidence measures and explore possible resolutions.

A reliable source said the just-ended ASEAN senior officials meeting was dominated by fierce debates over how ASEAN could contribute to the solution of the Spratlys conflict.

Indonesian officials maintained that such seminars be encouraged to improve confidence building measures but Malaysian insisted that the dispute be settled on bilateral basis.

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