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SINGAPORE: Regional rogues North Korea and Myanmar will top the
billing at Asia’s main security forum this week, but the inflation
crisis and disaster response have emerged as critical new concerns.
The 27-member Asean Regional Forum (ARF), which
includes nations from Asia as well as the European Union and the
United States, meets here Thursday after talks by ministers from the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
With civil war in Sri Lanka, insurgencies in
Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, and a dangerous new standoff
at an ancient temple on the Thai-Cambodian border, Asia’s list of
security issues is long.
But the North Korean nuclear issue tops the
agenda and the highlight of the conference will be a meeting of
foreign ministers from the six nations negotiating a
denuclearization plan—the first since 2003.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to
meet her North Korean counterpart Pak Ui Chun for the first time at
the informal talks tipped for Wednesday, which will also include
South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
the meeting was not aimed at generating “some specific negotiated
outcome” but would “review where the six-party process is at the
moment.”
Military-run Myanmar, which has infuriated the
international community by refusing to introduce democratic reforms
or free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, is
likely to face a fresh challenge.
Asean, which operates on a principle of
consensus that critics say renders it ineffective, has often been
criticized for failing to act firmly against its renegade member.
But Myanmar could face a demand from its
neighbors to release all political prisoners, a proposal made by the
bloc’s senior officials, which their foreign ministers must decide
whether to endorse.
If approved at the ministerial talks that start
late Sunday and continue the following day, the measure would signal
a toughening of Asean’s stance that would be welcomed by Western
governments.
The move comes after the ruling junta earned
widespread contempt by refusing to open its doors to foreign relief
workers in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May, a disaster that
left 138,000 people dead or missing.
Asean won plaudits for winning approval to
coordinate the international effort to bring help to two million
people who the bloc’s secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, has said
remain in a “very precarious situation.”
“For the first time in its history, Asean was
actually effective at something,” said Dave Mathieson, a
consultant on Burma for the US-based Human Rights Watch. “But
there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Working under an agreement with the United
Nations and the Myanmar government, nearly 300 Asean volunteers
operating in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta have prepared an
assessment that is to be released on Monday.
Myanmar’s cyclone disaster, a recent
earthquake in China and a ferry sinking in the Philippines have made
disaster preparedness a burning issue this week, two years after the
ARF vowed to develop guidelines for joint disaster relief.
Since then, precious little has been done but
the 27 members are now expected to discuss a joint civilian-military
disaster relief exercise, among other measures.
Amid warnings that spiraling prices of food and
fuel in the largely impoverished region could threaten political
stability, the Asean ministers will attempt to hammer out some
solutions.
The problem, if left unchecked, could pose a
challenge to the region’s long-term aim of evolving into a
European Union-style community where goods and services are freely
traded across the region by 2015, officials said.
Ministers will discuss “the growing challenge
posed by rising oil and food prices, which pose a serious challenge
to our people’s welfare as well as our countries’ continued
economic development,” according to a draft joint communiqué
obtained by Agence France-Presse.
-- AFP
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