Myanmar agreed yesterday to forgo the ASEAN chairmanship next year to avoid a damaging Western boycott of the group's meetings, as foreign ministers meeting in Laos prepared an accord on joining forces during tsunamis and other catastrophes.
The US and the EU had demanded that military-ruled Myanmar move toward democracy and release pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi or forfeit its turn at the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member regional bloc.
Myanmarese Foreign Minister Nyan Win told fellow ASEAN ministers during a retreat yesterday in the Laotian capital that the junta would relinquish the chairmanship, a joint ASEAN statement said. The post goes instead to next-in-line Philippines, Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo said.
`Full attention'
Nyan Win said his government wanted to give its "full attention" to its "ongoing national reconciliation and democratization process," the ASEAN statement said.
"We agreed that once Myanmar is ready to take its turn to be the ASEAN chair, it can do so," the ASEAN ministers said in the statement.
The issue came to a head in Laos this week during the group's annual ministerial meeting that runs through Friday, followed by the ASEAN Regional Forum -- a security dialogue with 14 other governments with interests in the region, such as the US, the EU, Russia and China.
ASEAN's more rapidly developing countries had feared damage to their trade ties with the West over the chairmanship issue. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice skipped this week's meeting, sending a deputy instead, in what diplomats suspected could be a precursor to a full boycott.
Asia expert Larry Wortzel of the Heritage Foundation in Washington said that handing the chairmanship to Myanmar would have been "foolish."
"Certainly Burma as chair would make it difficult for the US to focus its diplomacy on other matters of concern to the ASEAN states," Wortzel said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer welcomed ASEAN's decision.
"I think under these circumstances it is better that Myanmar focus on political and constitutional reform," he told reporters during a trip to Thailand.
Snubbed
Despite Myanmar's stated intention to focus on national reconciliation, the Myanmarese foreign minister snubbed the UN envoy who had tried to push those efforts forward since 2002.
Nyan Win refused to meet with UN envoy Razali Ismail during this week's six-day conference in Laos, sending him a message that "he would be too busy," said Razali, who came to Vientiane specifically to meet the foreign minister.
The ASEAN ministers were set to sign a pact later yesterday to improve cooperation in emergency preparedness and to expedite customs procedures to ensure fast responses during tsunamis and other disasters.
Wary of relying too heavily on aid from other governments -- often with military involvement -- countries in the region want better local coordination of shipments of medicine, food and emergency supplies.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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