New security forum up at ASEAN summit - Manila
MANILA - 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.
Reuters - November 18, 1999.
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