RI welcomes Vietnam in ASEAN: Alatas

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.

Editorial -- Page 4

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