Mekong News
Asean summit will be held in February

JAKARTA : Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations yesterday agreed the postponed Asean summit will now be held in February.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said it will run from Feb 24 to 26, and probably be held in Bangkok.

"To get 16 leaders - 10 from Asean countries and six others from China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India - together is very difficult because each leader has his own schedule. But we all agreed on next February," said Mr Surin.

Prime Minister-elect Abhisit Vejjajiva indicated that Chiang Mai, chosen by the previous government to host the postponed summit, would not be in the running as a venue.

"There will be a lot of problems if we hold the meeting in Chiang Mai," he said in Bangkok.

Chiang Mai is a stronghold of the former government and of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thailand assured Asean members of its readiness to host the summit during an Asean dinner in Jakarta on Sunday, prior to yesterday's ceremony marking the passing into force of the Asean Charter.

All member countries now had a better understanding of Thailand's situation and were satisfied with the confirmation of the meeting, said acting Information and Communications Technology Minister Mun Patanotai, who represented Thailand at the celebration.

Mr Mun said he would request the new government give a high priority to the February summit.

Foreign affairs permanent secretary Virasakdi Futrakul said Singapore's Foreign Minister, George Yeo, told him that Thailand should hold the meeting sooner because the economic situation was deteriorating.

Asean took a major step towards becoming a European Union-style community yesterday with the passing into force of a new charter setting benchmarks for democracy.

The charter sets out rules of membership, transforms Asean into a legal entity and envisages a single free trade area by 2015 for the region of 500 million people.

Mr Surin accepted that the charter was not perfect and there was room for improvement. But at least it had received many commitments from Asean leaders, especially on setting up a human rights body, he said.

"All Asean members are in the process of transforming themselves, to become more open and more democratic.

"We want to help each other accommodate and manage diversity among ourselves. Nobody is perfect and it's the nature of Asean to live with diversity and learn to manage the differences," Mr Surin said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "This is a momentous development when Asean is consolidating, integrating and transforming itself into a community".

The charter was supposed to have been activated at a summit in Thailand this month, but that meeting was postponed because of the political crisis.

The charter will give Asean, often dismissed as a talking shop, greater clout in international negotiations but critics argue some member states will continue to get away with gross human rights abuses.

Mr Surin rejected criticism the charter was purely symbolic.

"There is room for improvement. But to say that this piece of paper, this document, is worth nothing - it's not true," he said, adding, "we are going to make it a living document".

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