ASEAN SAYS...

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

New security forum up at ASEAN summit - Manila

  
MANILA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A proposal for a new security forum to discuss
and contain potential armed conflicts in Asia will be high on the agenda of
13 Asian leaders meeting at an informal summit in Manila this month. 

The November 28 summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and dialogue partners Japan, China and South Korea will also discuss
measures to spur a new Asian economic resurgence after the 1997-98 financial
crisis, Philippine foreign ministry officials said. 

The Philippines is pushing for the creation of an East Asia cooperation
forum where political and security issues could be discussed. 

Unlike Africa, which has its Organisation of African Union, and the Islamic
world which has its Organisation of Islamic Conference, Asia as a whole has
no forum where it could discuss thorny political issues that could erupt
into an armed confrontation, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said. 

``By the time a political or security problem goes to the U.N. Security
Council, there would just be too much bloodshed already on the ground and it
may be too late,'' Siazon told a news conference. 

He said the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the territorial dispute in
the South China Sea involving rival claimants China, Taiwan, Vietnam,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei were among politically volatile issues
confronting the region. 

CODE OF CONDUCT 

Siazon said the idea of an East Asian forum would be explored at the Manila
meeting but that it could take years before such a grouping materialised. 

He said the 10 ASEAN countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia -- plus
Japan, China and South Korea could comprise the forum's initial members. 

Separately from the 13-nation summit, ASEAN leaders will meet to discuss a
proposed regional code of conduct to govern the action of nations with rival
claims to potentially oil-rich isles in the area. 

ASEAN wants China, the biggest claimant, to accede to the code. 

``A code of conduct would contain an element that prohibits new presence in
areas where you are not there. If China agrees to that, then the moral force
would be felt,'' Siazon said. 

The Philippines has accused China of occupying a reef which Manila claims in
the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. 

China says all of the South China Sea has been under Chinese sovereignty for
centuries. 

On economic issues, Siazon said the summit would discuss measures ``for the
achievement of (Asia's) economic and financial resurgence.'' 

``There will be some decisions, some deliverables, in the economic and
financial fields,'' he said but gave no details. 

06:04 11-18-99