Senior officials endorse India and Myanmar for ARF

Senior officials endorse India and Myanmar for ARF

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Senior officials of the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) yesterday gave the green light for India and Myanmar to
join the 19-member multilateral security consultative forum.

"The Senior Officials Meeting has endorsed the proposal to
admit India and Myanmar, subject to the approval of the
ministers," the meeting's chairman, Indonesia's Izhar Ibrahim,
said.

However all other applications are to be frozen until ARF
ministers approve the criteria for new membership at their
Jakarta meeting in July, he said.

Izhar was speaking at the end of the ARF meeting which was
originally scheduled for two days. But due to the smooth conduct
of yesterday's proceedings, delegates were able to wrap up their
whole agenda in one day.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, formed the ARF in 1993. The
forum also includes Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, the
European Union, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Izhar, who is director general for political affairs at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the final decision for new
members will remain with the ministers when they gather in July.

Though yesterday's decision to endorse Myanmar's membership
was unanimous, several countries have expressed concern about
Yangon's human rights and domestic political records

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and
Pacific Affairs, Winston Lord, when asked, admitted that
relations between Washington and Yangon were "troubled".

"We have not hidden our concern about developments there,
whether its human rights or the failure to carry out the mandate
of a free election," he said.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that given its geography and
relationship to other countries in the region, Myanmar's
membership in the ARF is of great interest to the security of the
Asia Pacific region.

"We don't always agree on tactics with our friends out here,
we have the same goals however and we worked very harmoniously
together in discussing this issue," Lord remarked.

While the U.S. has taken up a more isolationist approach to
Myanmar, ASEAN states have responded to Myanmar in a milder way,
known as "constructive diplomacy".

Izhar defended India's acceptance due to its new position as a
full dialog partner of ASEAN, while Myanmar is a prospective
member of the association.

On the criteria for new ARF membership, Izhar said there were
three main elements proposed.

Firstly a new member must be relevant to the security of the
area. Secondly, it must adhere to the agreements previously taken
by the ARF. Thirdly admission must be approved by a consensus of
all ARF members.

Among those who have officially applied for membership are
Britain, France, Mongolia, North Korea, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The head of the European Union's delegation to the meeting,
Francesco Scarlata, said yesterday the question of Britain and
France's membership would be resolved internally among the
Europeans themselves.

"We will discuss amongst the European states the participation
of France and the U.K.," he said.

Two seats are allotted to Europe, with the European Union
getting one and the European Commissioner the other.

Several ASEAN delegates privately said there was no real
objection towards Britain and France. However there was concern
that by already having two seats on the ARF, the additional two
for Europe would proportionately sway the balance in their favor.

The senior officials also agreed to establish a new project on
disaster relief which will be co-chaired by Thailand and New
Zealand.