Article from India News Paper

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ASEM enlargement must involve Asian aspirant

By V.Jayanth
>From The Hindu,
Date 16th Jan,1998.


SINGARPORE, Jan.15: The President of European Commission, Mr. Jacques
Santer, has said that it is  natural for the first enlargement of the
Asia Europe Meeting process or ASEM, to primarily involve the main
aspirant in Asia. Delivering the inaugural lecture of the Asia Europe
Foundation (ASEF), here on Tuesday, Mr. Santer said such an enlargement
of Asian side would be logical in view of the  numerical imbalance
between Europe and Asian  presence in ASEM.

Europe view came in sharp contrast to the decision of the 10 East Asia
members of ASEM in Malasia last month, not to recommend any expansion
for their side  till second submit in London this April. India,
Pakistan, Austalia and New Zealand were the main  aspirants to enter
ASEM this year, but all on a sudden, some of Asean member, notably
Malasia, insisted on the admission of Myanmar, which has become a member
of Asean last year. Since EU vehemently opposed that inclusion, country
like Malasia prefer to put off any expansion for the time begin.

Referring to this different of opinion, the Commission president said 
there is a challenge of external expectation, in that the very success
of the ASEM process has intensified the interest of other counties, both
in Asia and Europe, in taking part in ASEM. There are some who have
argued for consolidation and deepening before broadening  and
enlargement, and one can not deny that this could be an easy option.

On the specific issue of Myanmar, Mr. Santer explained  the European
Union does not advocate the policy of isolating   any country. We try to
bring them into the international activity. But they must respond to the
values which we must defend and which our public option is very
sensitive about. Every country which wants to join the process must
subscribe to and accept the basic international conventions and charter
that we have all accept. It was the golden anniversary of the Charter
of Human Rights and Europe would like to deal not just with the
government, but also concerns of citizens, who must not suffer under
any leadership in their own country.

Reiterating the policy of non-isolation, Mr. Santer said every
diplomatic effort was being taking to find a solution  which could be
shared by both the European and Asian countries. When this attision was
drawn to the non-inclusion of Turkey in the EU, he said the situation
was somewhat similar. At its recent summit, the Europe had made a
specific offer to Turkey to join the European conference along with all
other applicants and aspirants to join the Union. But the country, like
other member States, must be prepared all the political and economic
criteria.

He explain that there were internal or domestic problems in Turkey that
need to be solved before it could join the EU, which had also asked
Romania to settle its internal problems which minorities. Through he
described Turkey sinitial response as disappointing, but
understandable, he hoped that a solution would be found and Turkey
would join the  family to which it belongs.

The EC president considered the introduction of the Euro in January
1999 as a measure that would have major impact in  helping to
strengthen, stabilies and diversify the international financial system.
On the ASEM process, Mr. Santer said there were two particular aspects
which added value _ there was a  greater mutual understanding in area
which might otherwise be through of as  sensitive; and its broad sweep
would help both regions to identify areas of genuine of common interest
and priorities for concerted action.

Both Europe and Asia were now engaged in a great deal of throught to
questions of  process, coordination and version. The Asia Europe
Cooperation framework and the Asia-Europe vision group were of
significant interest and would be carried forward in the forthcoming
London summit .