Indonesia and the Netherlands are working to ensure the ASEM conference will go ahead in October as planned. Both countries have agreed to look for a way to overcome the Myanmar crisis, which threatens the high-level conference.
THE Netherlands' Foreign Minister Bernard Bot gave assurances the Myanmar issue would be quickly resolved just after he had spoken with his colleague, Indonesian Foreign Minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda, in Jakarta, last Thursday. "ASEM should go ahead in Hanoi," Bot told the press.
The holding of the international Asia-Europe conference became uncertain when, long before the scheduled date, the European Union had declared it would not accept the Myanmar delegation's attendance. The organization of developed European industrial countries asked the Myanmar government to first improve the practice of human rights in that country. Apart from that, the European Union also asked the Myanmar military junta to immediately free pro-democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
Bernard Bot, whose nation now holds the mandate as President of the European Union, promised he would try to find a breakthrough to the dead end that had been reached in the discussions on holding the Asia-Europe Conference. For his part, Minister Wirajuda said he was certain the Indonesia-Netherlands bilateral discussions would yield a constructive solution. "I believe that, in the end, ASEAN and the European Union will come to regard the Myanmar case in the same way," he said. "It is in the interests of us all, both in Asia as well as in Europe, to satisfactorily resolve the issue of Myanmar's participation in ASEM," Wirajuda added.
If the meeting of Indonesia and the Netherlands really can produce a solution to the Myanmar crisis, the deadlock in the ASEAN-European Union negotiations, which has hung over the continuation of the ASEM conference like a specter, will then be over. The issue to date has been that ASEAN has refused to comply with the European Union's request to isolate Myanmar from the meeting. Apart from Myanmar, ASEAN is also insisting that its two other new members, Laos and Cambodia, must also be involved, unconditionally.
To date, the Myanmar crisis has already led to the cancellation of two ministerial-level meetings between the Asian and European countries. Meetings of senior economic ministers that were to be held in July and this September were postponed indefinitely.
In early August, the situation heated up after Myanmar had gone around Southeast Asia to garner support for its attendance of the conference. Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt flew straight to Vietnam and met its Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Communist Party Chair Nong Duc Manh in Hanoi. Afterwards, he went on to Phnom Penh and held serious discussions with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The last conference between the heads of Asia and Europe was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, two years ago. Then, 15 European Union and seven ASEAN leaders, together with the heads of government of China, Japan, and South Korea all attended. Since they were first established in 1994, High-Level Conferences between Europe and Asia have been held five times. Only this time has the conference come close to being cancelled because of an internal crisis among its members.
Wahyu/Faisal/AFP (Koran Tempo)
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