Smoother road to East Asia Summit
BY SIM LEOI LEOIJAKARTA: The path for Malaysia to host the first ever East Asia Summit next year has been smoothened.
Nine out of the 10 Asean members have indicated their agreement for Malaysia to host the summit back to back with the Asean Summit, which will take place from Nov 28 to 29, 2005.
Indonesia, which earlier seemed to pour cold water over the summit, had not given any outright objection to Malaysia’s proposal, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.
“They have only asked us to look into details and the implications of holding the summit. There is a general body of consensus from the Asean members.
“And this gives the added confidence that people welcome the idea of such a summit,” he told reporters after the closing of the 37th Asean Ministerial Meeting here yesterday.
Earlier in his closing speech, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said that many countries were clamouring to hold summits with Asean.
“We should rationalise the holding of such summits so as not to strain our resources and not let Asean lose out on the driver’s seat,” he said.
Syed Hamid said it was now up to senior officials to iron out the modalities and smooth concerns over such fears.
“The intention is not about replacing the Asean Plus Three Process but that maybe we can alternate the events.”
The East Asia Summit will be a meeting of Asean members with China, Japan and South Korea as individual countries and not as a regional grouping, which is the Asean Plus Three process.
“We are very happy with the outcome. But we will have to address all the concerns before the summit in Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
On another matter, Syed Hamid said that Asean had come up with a new formulation on Myanmar in its joint communique to encourage the democratisation process in that country, which had come under fire for the continuous detention of its Opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
Earlier, the ministers signed a declaration on the elimination of violence against women in Asean, which will commit their countries to eight measures to eradicate such abuse.
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