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Reuters-Manila says ASEAN-EU meetin



Subject: Reuters-Manila says ASEAN-EU meeting off ``as of today''

Manila says ASEAN-EU meeting off ``as of today''
08:37 a.m. Mar 14, 1999 Eastern
MANILA, March 14 (Reuters) - A planned meeting this month between the
European Union and ASEAN foreign ministers will not go ahead ``as of today''
because of a dispute over Myanmar, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo
Siazon said on Sunday.

Siazon said, however, that ASEAN member Thailand was still talking with the
EU about the format of the proposed meeting between the two blocs,
indicating that it had not been definitely cancelled.

Siazon spoke to reporters after talks in Manila with Myanmar Foreign
Minister Aung Win.

EU sanctions against Myanmar, which joined the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, ban high level meetings with its officials
because of the EU's disapproval of that country's human rights record.

The meeting between foreign ministers of the EU and ASEAN had been planned
to be held towards the end of this month in Berlin.

Asked if the meeting would go through, Siazon said: ``ASEAN-EU as of today,
no...But still talks are going about the format.''

``Diplomacy is the art of the possible as long as it is not a square
circle,'' Siazon said, adding the EU had laid down conditions related to
Myanmar which were not acceptable to ASEAN. He refused to elaborate.

``What is being requested is to discriminate against an ASEAN member which
is unthinkable,'' Siazon said.

The ASEAN includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos.