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All-Asian security forum for East A



Subject: All-Asian security forum for East Asia mulled 

BusinessWorld 
October 19, 1999

All-Asian security forum for East Asia mulled 


    It is the nearest thing ever, so far, to the idea of East Asian
problems being tackled primarily by
Asians themselves. 

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Lauro L. Baja Jr.
told reporters yesterday at the
Department of Foreign Affairs office on Roxas Boulevard that it was agreed
during the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) senior official's meeting in Bangkok last
week that there will be a
declaration of such an arrangement during the ASEAN informal summit in
Manila on Nov. 26. 

The declaration will be signed by ASEAN members the Philippines, Thailand,
Indonesia, Malaysia,
Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, as well
as dialogue partners
China, South Korea and Japan. 

"A declaration on cooperation in East Asia, which will be signed by the 13
countries, will be issued
during the informal summit," Mr. Baja said. "This declaration will subsume
the informal grouping of
ASEAN plus three or ASEAN plus one." 

Foreign Affairs Secretray Domingo L. Siazon, Jr. earlier said that an
extended ASEAN group will help
facilitate conflict management as well as provide for more economic,
political and cultural cooperation
among countries in East Asia . 

The most urgent security matter for ASEAN and China, however, remains on
the drawing board. Mr.
Baja said ASEAN remains bogged down on some points in the proposed code of
conduct in the South
China Sea. 

The proposed code will bind not only claimants to the Spratlys Island
Group, which is covetted due to
its reported marine, natural gas and oil resources, but also all other
powers that have a stake in keeping
the South China Sea open to commercial shipping. 

The Spratlys is claimed as a whole by China and Taiwan and in parts by the
Philippines, Malaysia,
Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam. 

Mr. Baja recalled there were two things that did not encounter any
disagreement. "One was the
necessity for a regional code of conduct and two, on the so-called
principle of no new occupation over
unoccupied island or atolls," he said. 

The provison which was disagreed upon was the "zone of application or the
definition of South China
Sea," he said. Mr. Baja noted, for instance, that the Philippines is
content with the term South China
Sea, but Malaysia has argued this would be too vague since the South China
Sea actually extends up to
its own territorial waters adjacent to the states of Sabah and Sarawak.
Vietnam, for its part, wants to
use only the term, "disputed areas." 

"I told them that if we could agree on the moratorium (on further building
activities in disputed sites),
there will be no urgency for the ratification of the code of conduct," Mr.
Baja said. 

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