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| Thursday, 1 July 2004 |
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ASEAN FMs to push for stronger integration, anti-terror cooperation JAKARTA, Wednesday (AFP) Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers gathered in Indonesia Wednesday for their annual meeting, focused on improving security in a region hit by terror attacks and on closer economic and political integration. The ministers from the grouping's 10 nations are set to endorse plans for an ASEAN security community which, along with an economic and socio-cultural community, will form the basis of a European-style ASEAN Community by 2020. But casting a shadow over the meeting is Myanmar's continued detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, an issue that threatens to sabotage the grouping's relations with the European Union. The security action plan calls for arrangements among members to peacefully solve conflicts or mitigate tensions that threaten stability within the region, which is home to 500 million people and includes communist states, monarchies and newly emerging democracies. ASEAN leaders will formally adopt the document when they meet at a summit in November in Laos. The draft is a watered-down version of original proposals made by current chairman Indonesia, which was forced to shelve plans for a regional peacekeeping force after other members objected. Foreign ministers are expected to endorse a so-called "Vientiane Action Plan" that will outline areas of cooperation and activities in the next six years, Filipino officials told AFP. They will also discuss ways of combating trans-national crime and terrorism. Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have already agreed to establish joint patrols in the pirate-infested Malacca Strait, through which about half the world's oil supplies and a third of global trade passes. The United States and Singapore have raised fears that extremists could hijack a tanker in the strait and turn it into a floating bomb. The ministers will also "emphasise the need to address the root causes of terrorism" as well as further review and strengthen cooperation on the issue, according to a draft joint communique. The Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group has launched a spate of attacks in Indonesia and the Philippines and plotted attacks in Thailand and Singapore. JI's bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in October 2002 killed 202 people in the worst terror attack since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. One major concern is Myanmar's continued hardline stance against Aung San Suu Kyi despite repeated calls by fellow ASEAN for her release, officials said. "They are hard-headed and insist that it is a domestic issue," one Filipino diplomat said. A planned October summit between Asian and European leaders to be hosted by Vietnam is now under threat of being cancelled because the EU has been critical of Myanmar's treatment of the opposition leader. Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said ASEAN foreign ministers would review whether Myanmar had made any progress a year after they called for the release of the democracy fighter. "That is the benchmark against which we will be listening to Myanmar," he said. |
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