U.S. wants ASEAN to push Myanmar - Suu Kyi talks
JAKARTA (JP): The United States is hoping that ASEAN can persuade the Myanmarese government to hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's freely elected leader who has been under house arrest by the Yangon regime for five years.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord said in a satellite news conference called "Worldnet Dialog" yesterday that although Washington respects the approach taken by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN ) to Myanmar, it has a different stance on the issue.
"A very good outcome will be if the Burmese (Myanmarese) government would talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and freely elected leader of Burma (Myanmar) who, as of tomorrow, will be five years in jail," Lord said during the dialog, which was observed by panelists in Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and Canberra.
Foreign ministers of the six ASEAN member countries -- Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- will start their annual meeting this week in the Thai capital. Next week they will meet with their dialog partners from the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union.
Myanmar will be attending the ASEAN ministerial meeting as a guest but will not take part in the talks between the regional grouping and its dialog partners.
Other topics discussed during yesterday's "Worldnet Dialog" included the role of ASEAN in the overall strategy of the Clinton administration, human rights and the forthcoming meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Indonesia in November.
APEC, an economic cooperation forum , groups Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and ASEAN.
Lord said that ASEAN is very important to the United States because the member countries of the regional grouping comprise some of the most dynamic economies in the world. ASEAN collectively constitutes the fourth largest export destination for the U.S. and is viewed as important in relation to President Clinton's priority of rebuilding America's economy.
"Therefore, when one talks about exports, jobs and investments, obviously ASEAN is very important," Lord added.
Touching on APEC, he said that the U.S. is anxious to develop the cooperation as the cornerstone of freer regional economic trade and investment, while respecting the views of other countries.
"APEC is a consensus organization and we don't think it should be a trading bloc," he said.
He also pointed out that there are countries in the group which want to move the cooperation forward very rapidly, while others want to advance cautiously.
APEC
He praised Indonesia, which currently chairs APEC, for its realistic objectives. "We think Indonesia's showing a good balance of a forward-looking vision but also making sure that there is a full support for the pace that is applied," he stated.
"We think it will have some concrete accomplishments as well as some bold visions of freer trade in the future. And Indonesia is showing very constructive leadership in this."
When asked about the U.S. stance on human rights, Lord replied that Washington remains consistent with its policies on the issue.
"We will continue our policies on human rights, but we recognize that there are many other interests -- economic, security and environmental -- and we have to take different approaches to various countries, depending on the nature of the problems and the other interests that are included," he said.
For panelists in Jakarta, yesterday's dialog was held in the United States Information Services auditorium at the American embassy.
Watching the satellite-conveyed program were U.S. Ambassador Robert L. Barry, embassy officials and a number of Indonesian journalists. (ego)
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