Asean foreign
ministers will explore the idea of bringing China, Japan and South Korea into
the group's connectivity scheme when they hold their annual meeting in Phnom
Penh next week, the chief of Thailand's Asean Department said yesterday.
The regional grouping has developed a connectivity master
plan to enhance integration, and wants the three East Asian powerhouses to play
a bigger role in it, Asean Department chief Arthayudh Srisamoot said.
China, Japan and South Korea link with Asean through
various cooperation mechanisms under the Asean+3 framework.
"If the three countries paid more attention to the
connectivity of the group, we could utilise existing resources and cooperation
mechanisms to enhance regional development," Arthayudh said.
Asean ministers will produce a paper, "Asean+3
Partnership on Connectivity", which will be put for endorsement by the
leaders of Asean and the three partner states during their summit late this
year.
Asean connectivity is aimed at developing hardware and software
infrastructure to link countries in the region as well as enhance
people-to-people relations. The scheme is expected to strengthen the
integration of the Asean community by 2015.
Connectivity is one of the issues that foreign ministers
from the 10 members of Asean and its 17 dialogue partners will discuss during
the meeting in Phnom Penh. They will also discuss the Drug-Free Asean 2015
policy, disaster management, economic cooperation, narrowing gasp in
development and preventive diplomacy.
Also on the agenda are the situation in the South China
Sea, particularly the possibility of establishing a code of conduct to ensure
peace and stability. The South China Sea has become a hot issue, with many
members of Asean, especially the Philippines and Vietnam, embroiled in
territorial conflicts with China.
Asean members had agreed among themselves on the need for
a code of conduct in the region, but needed to discuss it further with China,
Arthayudh said. But he cautioned that Asean ministers might not be able to
reach any conclusion during the meeting in Phnom Penh.
Several documents are expected to be signed and adopted
during the Asean meeting in Cambodia next week including the Treaty on a
Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapons Free Zone, and instruments relating to the
European Union's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast
Asia.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend several
meetings, including the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting and the
Asean Regional Forum. Clinton will also lead American entrepreneurs in a
meeting with Asean business community members in Siem Reap after the Asean
meeting. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been invited to join the
business forum but is yet to announce if she will attend.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
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