The first ARF meeting: An evolution

The first ARF meeting: An evolution

By Jusuf Wanandi

JAKARTA (JP): The first ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), held in
Bangkok in July 1994, was very encouraging. Its success was in
fact a stark contrast to the results of the earlier preparatory
meeting of senior officials in May 1994 which was considered
inadequate and too timid by some member countries because of its
preoccupation over the agenda setting for the Ministerial
Meeting.

The ARF is unquestionably a major effort and break-through in
confidence building measures (CBMs) and preventive diplomacy for
the Asia- Pacific region. In addition to ASEAN's six members, it
has successfully engaged the constructive participation of all
other principal players in the region, namely: ASEAN dialog
partners (USA, Japan, Canada, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and
the European Union); ASEAN observers (Vietnam, PNG and Laos);
plus guests to the ASEAN Ministers Meeting (China and Russia).
Such initiative to bring all these key players together to
comfortably confer with each other is indeed vital in this
contemporary post-Cold War era where no real efforts towards
developing a truly region-wide multilateral regional security
dialog and cooperation have ever been made before.

ASEAN itself was established in an effort to facilitate the
process of confidence building in Southeast Asia, namely to
overcome the then serious animosity between Indonesia and
Malaysia, Singapore-Malaysia and with the Vietnam War in mind.

As ASEAN's success in being Southeast Asia's major regional
entity gains prominence, it is only timely and appropriate that
ASEAN now takes up the lead in formulating and implementing fresh
initiatives proportional to the region's increasingly demanding
and complex requirements.

At the very least, ASEAN's standing and performance should
make these much needed initiatives less susceptible to
suspicions, as is often the case with those introduced by the
greater powers in the region.

At the same time, ASEAN's long-standing experience and proven
successes in these delicate areas should provide extra assurances
of its total commitment toward the betterment of the region as a
whole. From here, we can expect ARF to be the key to and main
pillar of the region's evolving security arrangements and frame-
work.

In line with the above expectation, the first ARF has already
produced some significant achievements as follows:

1. Institutionalization of the Forum: ARF has been
institutionalized with an agreement to hold it annually, with
Brunei Darussalam as its venue in 1995;

2. ARF to cover whole Asia Pacific: The ARF is considered a
useful regional institution for security dialog and cooperation
for the whole of the Asia-Pacific, and not limited to Southeast
Asia alone. That is why the case of Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) in the Korean Peninsula has been taken up by the
ARF, and both the U.S.- North Korea negotiations and the
resumption of inter-Korean dialog have been endorsed;

3. Establishment of a Uniform Regional Code of Conduct: The
principles of a regional order in the Asia-Pacific region also
have been laid down through an endorsement of the purposes and
principles embodied in ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
of 1976. This acceptance still has to be worked out by ASEAN
through further opening of the Treaty for accessions by non-
ASEAN members in the near future. To date, PNG, Vietnam and
Laos have already acceded to the Treaty.

4. ARF as Primary Instruments for CBMs & Preventive Diplomacy: It
has been recognized that ARF can become an effective instrument
to create CBMs and preventive diplomacy in the region. In this
respect some concrete items of CBMs have been taken up for
further studies. These items were agreed upon by consensus among
all participants, and they will cover:
a. issues such as confidence and security building; nuclear non
proliferation; peacekeeping cooperation, including a peacekeeping
training center; exchanges of non-classified information;
maritime security issues; preventive diplomacy;
b. comprehensive concept of security; including its economic and
social aspects;
c. relevant internationally recognized norms and principles
pertaining to international and regional political and
security cooperation.

The first ARF meeting also agreed to promote the eventual
participation of all ARF countries in the UN Conventional Arms
Register. In addition, the meeting agreed that informal meetings
among officials can be held to make all these studies and efforts
possible.

These achievements are commendable indeed. Yet, beyond these,
the ARF will have to ensure that its success does contribute to
enhancing existing stability and peace in the region. Toward that
end, there are three major tasks and challenges that the ARF will
have to seriously consider in its future endeavors:

First, the ARF should be able to balance the interests of
ASEAN on the one hand, and the other participants on the other
hand, especially those of the super powers. ASEAN's interests
should be given attention to, because it is the anchor of the
institution. But the interests of other participants are also
important in order to promote ARF and to make it effective.

Second, the "ASEAN approach" to establish a certain regional
solidarity and trust in the region has to be complemented with
concrete cooperation. The spirit of trust and solidarity is the
key to ARF's success, but concrete achievements are necessary
to sustain other members' interests in the effort.

Third, the ARF should encourage "second-track" approach and
involve academics and NGOs, and to cultivate their close-
partnership in an effort to further improve understanding,
dialog and cooperation which are occurring in various
fields of activity.

The third point is of particular relevance to Council for
Security Cooperation in the Asia- Pacific Region (CSCAP). The
idea to embark on a full-multilateral political-security dialog
is a new development. Hence, the efforts of academics and NGOs to
initiate studies and networking in these areas could crucially
contribute to achieving the stated objectives. Through their
participation, greater flexibility and transparencies, i.e.
frankness on the objectives, issues and modalities for CBMs, can
be more easily achieved.

A similar process has been experienced in developing the idea
of economic cooperation in the region, where the non-governmental
Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) has paved the way for
the establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum
(APEC). PECC continues to be vital to the economic cooperation in
the region because of its partite nature (involving officials in
a private capacity, academics and the private sector).

CSCAP has been established to perform the role of a "second-
track" in the area of multilateral security dialog and
cooperation. Its efforts involve government officials in a
private capacity, academics, editors, politicians and even
businessmen. To date, CSCAP has established four working groups
to deal with Confidence and Security Building Measures, including
Comprehensive Security; Maritime Security; North Pacific Security
Cooperation.

Results of these studies are expected to contribute to the
efforts that ARF agreed to undertake in its recent meeting in
Bangkok. Prior to this, CSCAP issued a memorandum on "The
Security of the Asia- Pacific Region", which was also submitted
at ARF's first meeting. Overall, it is expected that CSCAP can
continue to be one of the main sources of input and studies for
ARF in the future.

Against all the above background, it is therefore imperative
that CSCAP gets its act together, moves on with its studies,
enlarges its membership, strengthens its networking, consolidates
its organization and renders maximal support to political
security cooperation in the region through ARF. Only then can
peace, stability and economic dynamism in the region be
maintained.

The writer is chairman of supervisory board of the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies.

Window A: PECC continues to be vital to the economic cooperation in the
region because of its partite nature.

Window B: It is expected that CSCAP can continue to be one of the main
sources of input and studies for ARF in the future.