SE Asia seeks global role -- and global help

SE Asia seeks global role -- and global help

HANOI (Reuters): Southeast Asian foreign ministers met major
global powers on Thursday in an effort to recapture a credible
role on the world stage and win international assistance for
their crippled economies.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is
struggling to rebuild its relevance in the face of nagging
internal divisions, declining economic clout and the growing
regional political and economic ascendancy of China.

In a series of meetings in Hanoi this week with regional big-
hitters China, Japan, South Korea and Australia, as well as the
United States and the European Union, ASEAN ministers have sought
to put past arguments behind them and unite.

But the most notable development to come out of the forum has
been a further thaw in the thorny relationship between the U.S.
and China, illustrating the struggle ASEAN faces to avoid being
sidelined and overshadowed by its giant neighbor.

After a meeting on Wednesday between U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, Beijing
said on Thursday it had paroled two U.S.-based Chinese scholars
jailed for 10 years earlier in the week for spying.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was
heartening to see signs of progress in China-U.S. ties,
demonstrated by the fact there had been little discussion of the
U.S. missile defense plan at the Hanoi meetings.

"I think it's very important that they engage in intensive
dialogue with China and make sure that China understands that the
missile defense program is not directed at dealing with China but
it's about what Americans call rogue states," he said.

But he warned that although "the signs are pretty good" on
U.S.-China relations, "that is not to say one can't anticipate
events that could occur to cause more damage to it."

Powell is due to make a one-day visit to China on Saturday to
prepare for a visit by Bush in October.

A major theme of Thursday's talks was how to cope with the
global economic slowdown that has dealt ASEAN a fresh blow.

China's Tang said richer countries must help the developing
world through debt write-offs and greater trade access.
"Developed countries that are the main beneficiaries of economic
globalization should assume main responsibilities for stimulating
growth of the world economy," he said.

ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said that in a
working lunch, ASEAN participants urged that the new world trade
round take into account concerns of developing countries.

Little progress was made during the week on one of the
region's main concerns -- relations with North Korea.
Hopes for a resumption of high-level dialogue in Hanoi between
North Korea and the U.S. were dashed last week when Pyongyang
said its foreign minister was too busy to attend.

Officials said the two countries remained far apart, with
North Korea's representative telling the forum the U.S. was
attaching too many preconditions to a resumption of dialogue.

Powell insisted Washington was eager for fresh talks and
Downer said Washington had been taking a constructive approach by
saying it would meet anywhere with an open agenda.
"The North Koreans at this stage are sounding rather negative in
getting these talks underway -- at least soon," he said.

Other unresolved regional spats include a row between Japan
and China over trade, a new Japanese textbook which critics say
glosses over wartime atrocities, and a controversial planned
visit by Japan's prime minister to a shrine honoring war dead.

China and several ASEAN states are also in dispute on the
Spratly Islands, a remote archipelago said to be rich in oil.

But at a gala dinner on Thursday, ministers have been asked to
put their differences aside and sing, dance and tell jokes.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien was scheduled to
get the festivities started with a folk song, with each nation
expected to provide a light-hearted party piece.

Amid reports that Powell had balked at singing, however,
officials have said participation is not compulsory.

Powell, returning to Vietnam for the first time since he
fought the communists as a soldier more than three decades ago,
said his visit to Hanoi had been an emotional experience.

"So much has changed, of course, but so much is the same --
the rice paddies, the houses I remember, the people ...
industrious, hard at work," he told reporters.