Thai, RP want ASEAN meeting before APEC
Thai, RP want ASEAN meeting before APEC
BANGKOK (Agencies): Philippine President Fidel Ramos and Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai have called for an informal meeting of the six member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to work out a 'joint stance' prior to the second summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Indonesia in November.
The two leaders agreed on the idea during a brief meeting in Bangkok on Thursday evening, according to a Thai government spokesman.
Ramos dropped into Bangkok on his way to a nine-day official visit to five European nations.
The two leaders also agreed the failure to hold a preliminary meeting among the ASEAN members during the first APEC summit meeting in Seattle last year resulted in incoherent positions among ASEAN members on various issues during the summit.
APEC brings together 17 economies around the Pacific Rim to a forum aiming to search for closer economic cooperation.
Conceived in 1989, APEC comprises Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, the United States and the six ASEAN countries.
Chile is to join the group starting with this year's meeting. ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
India
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao said in Singapore yesterday that India would apply to join the APEC forum as soon as the grouping signaled its readiness for new members.
Rao said that while he did not wish "to knock on closed doors," he would, with Singapore's support, make a bid for India's membership "the moment I see that there is a chance for entry," he said.
The 73-year-old Indian premier was speaking to reporters at the end of a three-day official visit during which he held wide- ranging talks with Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and called for a new partnership between India and the economically booming Asia-Pacific.
Goh, responding to questions, said that the APEC "door is not locked," adding: "It may not be open, but it is not locked. It is waiting for the right opportunity for India to come in."
A Singapore foreign ministry official said on Thursday that Singapore which hosts the APEC secretariat would welcome India's membership in APEC because New Delhi was "a major player in Asia."
Indian officials accompanying Rao said that Goh had promised to back an Indian application to join APEC, but they said that India was unlikely to become an APEC member soon because the grouping's leaders had frozen new admissions for three years at their last informal talks in Seattle in November last year.
APEC members account for half of the world's economic output and more than 40 percent of global trade.