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.