The ASEAN meetings

The ASEAN meetings

This week is a very busy one for the 29-year-old Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It started last Tuesday, with
the senior officials' talks to prepare for the meeting of foreign
ministers over the weekend. The series of conferences is to be
capped this week with dialogs between ASEAN and 28 developing
countries and developed countries. The dialog partners comprise
of seven developing countries -- Papua New Guinea, Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar, Russia, China and India -- and 21 developed
countries -- the 15 member-European Union, Australia, Canada,
Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States.

The number and variety of the countries taking part in the
annual ASEAN meetings, which cover economic, political and
security issues, clearly shows the increasing international
recognition of ASEAN's role in the peace, stability and dynamism
of Southeast Asia.

A notable development in this year's meetings is the first
participation of Myanmar as an observer in the ASEAN Ministerial
Meeting and the first presence of India, from South Asia, China
and Russia as full dialog partners.

The admission of Myanmar as an observer -- to strong
criticisms by several of the participating developed countries --
is part of ASEAN's ongoing constructive-engagement process to
eventually group all 10 countries in the Southeast Asian region.
Cambodia and Laos are expected to join next year and Myanmar to
follow in 1998.

The three new members will certainly increase the strains on
the process of decision-making and consensus-building within
ASEAN, which even now has often been criticized for holding so
many meetings of numerous levels (more than 250 a year).
Nonetheless, the admission of the three countries, whose economic
development levels are still below those of the current seven
members, is quite strategic for the promotion of peace, stability
and welfare in the region. Their joining ASEAN will bind them to
the association's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast
Asia, thereby contributing to the region's security and
stability, which, in turn, will facilitate and sustain economic
development.

It is encouraging to note that the ASEAN ministers, as their
joint communique shows, devoted more attention to concrete
matters and issues of more significance to the grouping's
objective of sharing prosperity through economic cooperation and
integration. Notably through the ASEAN Free Trade Area and
functional cooperation in the development of human resources,
science and technology, education and in the control of drug
abuse and HIV/AIDS.

Also of great significance is the stronger common stand forged
by ASEAN against the inclusion of nontrade-related issues, such
as corruption and labor standards, in the agenda of the first
ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
Singapore in mid-December. The tone was set by President
Soeharto, who devoted a great deal of his opening address at the
ministerial meeting to the agenda of the forthcoming WTO meeting.

He expressed concern over the attempt by some developed
countries to sidetrack the deliberations in Singapore so that the
focus of the agenda would be on issues unrelated to trade. Trade
is vital to sustaining high economic growth in ASEAN countries,
which has been averaging at a respectable rate of 7 percent over
the last five years. Trade is also one of the most effective
means of forging links between the economies of the 10 Southeast
Asian countries. Such links will prevent divisions of Southeast
Asian countries into rich and poor ones.