ASEAN plans for Asia-Europe Summit

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: ASEAN plans for Asia-Europe Summit
     
 By Bill Tarrant 

    BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei, July 25 (Reuter) - Southeast Asian nations
meeting in this Borneo oil kingdom started planning for an historic
Asian-European summit early next year, senior diplomatic officials said on
Tuesday. 

    A senior officials meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) also discussed putting Burma, virtually a pariah in the West because
of its human-rights record, on a track towards eventual membership in the
grouping, formed in 1967 at the height of the Indochina war. 

    An Asian-Europe summit is being tentatively planned for late February or
early March in Bangkok, diplomats at the meeting said. 

    The summit will be discussed in more detail at the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) next week following ASEAN's annual ministerial meeting this weekend. 

    Foreign ministers from 18 countries, including the United States, Russia,
China and Japan will be attending the ARF, which aims to become the premier
security conference of Asia. Representatives of the European Union will also
be attending the forum. 

    ASEAN diplomats said the sensitive question of who will be invited to the
summit has not been finally decided. 

    One ASEAN diplomat said it would likely be the seven ASEAN countries --
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam, which was to be formally admitted on Friday -- along with China,
Japan and South Korea. Diplomats call it the ``seven plus three'' formula. 

    ASEAN diplomats said Australia was expected to lobby strongly at the
forum for an invitation. 

    Australia's inclusion at the summit has been supported by Japan and South
Korea, but Malaysia has argued against it, saying if Australia was invited
then other Asia-Pacific powers with strong trade links in the region, such as
the United States, would also have to be invited, the diplomats said. 

    The 10 Asian countries would also make up the proposed East Asian
Economic Caucus (EAEC), a brainchild of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad. 

    The EAEC, which some wags call a caucus without the Caucasians because it
excludes ``Asia wannabes'' like Australia and New Zealand, has been given a
cool reception from Washington and Tokyo. 

    The ASEAN senior officials also discussed eventual membership for Burma,
which will be attending the ministerial meeting as a guest. 

    Senior officials said Burma was expected to submit a signed copy of
ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation at the ministerial meeting, the key
step towards becoming first an ``observer country'' and then an eventual
member of the group. 

    Brunei's Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Lim Jock Seng told
reporters after the meeting on Tuesday that Burma had ``sent a fax'' applying
for observer status. Burma's application ``is being actively considered,'' he
said. 

    One senior official at the meeting said the release of Burma's
pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi earlier
this month had been received ``positively'' by ASEAN. 

    ``It is a vindication of our policy of 'constructive engagement' with
Myanmar (Burma),'' he said. 

    ASEAN officials say the group aims to have 10 members -- with Burma, Laos
and Cambodia slated for membership -- by the end of the century. 

Reut10:42 07-25-95

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