Reuter: Outcast Welcomed Warmly at

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Subject: Reuter: Outcast Welcomed Warmly at ASEAN Metting

Reuter: Outcast Welcomed Warmly at ASEAN Metting  
  By Bill Tarrant

     JAKARTA, July 20 (Reuter) - Burma, treated as an outcast by the West
for suppressing its pro-democracy movement, was welcomed warmly on Saturday
by its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
     Rebuffing Western calls for sanctions and appeals by Burmese
opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi to isolate Rangoon's military rulers,
the seven ASEAN members accorded Burma observer status in a group that
represents some of the fastest growing economies in the world.
     The meeting's chairman, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, said
Burma was making "earnest endeavours" for full membership by the turn of
the century.
     Since ASEAN was founded almost three decades ago, it has been the
vision of its members "that one day all the 10 nations of Southeast Asia
will live in harmony, cooperation and shared prosperity within the fold of
the ASEAN family," Alatas said.
     The seven members of ASEAN -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei -- have made a creed out of not
interfering in each other's affairs.
     But they say they are exerting quiet diplomacy on Burma at forums like
ASEAN, a policy known as "constructive engagement."
     "Since we are in the family, we don't have to shout. We only have to
whisper," Philippines Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon said on Friday.
     "We do not believe in isolating our neighbour. We don't believe in
sanctions," Thailand's Foreign Minister Amnuay Viravan said.
     While Burma is a non-issue so far as ASEAN is concerned, it will come
up during next week's ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings the seven nations
together with 14 other world powers, including the United States, European
Union, China, Japan, Russia, Australia and India.
     Indonesia's President Suharto, opening the meeting of foreign
ministers, took a swipe at industrialised nations for threatening to raise
non-trade issues at the World Trade Organisation's inaugural ministerial
meeting in Singapore in December.
     Suharto expressed concern over "the efforts of some developed
countries to sidetrack the deliberations...so that the focus will be on
matters extraneous to trade."
     Countries in the region have in the past objected to calls by labour
organisations to link trade privileges with social issues such as child
labour, minimum wages and collective bargaining rights.
     ASEAN sources said the foreign ministers' agenda included territorial
disputes in the South China Sea.
     China has alarmed many in the region by enlarging claims to vast
stretches of the South China Sea, which commands key shipping lanes between
the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
     The Spratlys, a scattered series of islands, reefs and atolls in the
region, is a related issue.
     Believed to be sitting atop bountiful oil and gas reserves, the
Spratlys are claimed entirely by China and Taiwan and partly by ASEAN
members Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
     The ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss progress on their nuclear
weapons free zone, over which nuclear powers China and the United States
have expressed reservations.
     They were also due to discuss an ASEAN Free Trade Area, which
contemplates vastly reduced or zero tariffs in an area that encompasses
some 425 million people, or larger than Europe.
  REUTER
KT
ISBDA