Southeast Asia and Australia forged a new friendship yesterday while Asia's top security forum struggled to stay relevant by expanding its mission from annual speechmaking to year-round diplomatic troubleshooting.
Australia pushed aside its past reservations about a nonaggression pact with ASEAN and signed a document of intent to join the treaty so it can be more solidly aboard efforts to create an Asian trade bloc to rival that of Europe and North America.
Australia's foreign minister joined counterparts from the 10-member ASEAN bloc and 13 other Asia-Pacific nations in Laos for the annual security-oriented ASEAN Regional Forum through tomorrow.
PHOTO: AFP
The ARF is Asia's top annual security forum, but it was getting second-tier attention this year from big players: Top diplomats from the US, Japan, China and India skipped all or part of this year's meeting, sending deputies instead.
"We see it as a coincidence. It's that they have some urgent business," said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon. "We hope it's not a new trend."
Ministers at the conference planned to adopt a new doctrine today empowering the chairman of the forum to convene committees during brewing conflicts so that they can intervene with "preventive diplomacy," ARF spokesman M.C. Abad, Jr. said.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the change has been inevitable since the ARF was formed in 1994.
"I think after 10 years, it is the correct way of moving forward ... a natural extension," Syed Hamid said. "I think it is good that it is not just simply a talk shop."
Abad said forum officials were drafting a concept paper to elaborate on giving the ARF chair the enhanced role.
Foreign ministers from the two Koreas met at a hotel in Vientiane while six-party talks continued in Beijing on efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Australia originally balked at joining countries such as Russia, China and India in signing the ASEAN nonaggression pact, saying it could conflict with its other treaties, including with the US.
Southeast Asian nations had urged Australia to sign the accord to help dispel their concerns over Canberra's policy asserting it has the right to attack terrorists on foreign soil if they pose a threat to Australia. That policy -- announced by Prime Minister John Howard after the 2002 Bali bombings killed 88 Australians -- drew strong protests from Indonesia and Malaysia, whose then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused Howard of acting like a "white-man sheriff in some black country." At the six-day regional conference in Laos, foreign ministers from Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia all indicated that the issue was now defused.
"If the suggestion here is are we planning to invade our neighbors, that is a preposterous proposition," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. "It's not an issue at all," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda agreed.
ASEAN made the pact a condition for Australia's invitation -- announced Tuesday -- for the inaugural East Asia summit in Malaysia in December among ASEAN's 10 core members plus China, Japan, South Korea and invitees New Zealand, India -- and now Australia.
The summit aims to create a trade bloc in a market encompassing half the world's population -- something Australia and the other invitees are eager to join. New Zealand, which did not share Australia's previous objections to the ASEAN pact, signed onto the treaty yesterday, as did Mongolia. Australia is to follow up its declaration of intent to join the treaty with ratification by its parliament and is expected to join by December.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
PINEAPPLE DEBATE: While the owners of the pizzeria dislike pineapple on pizza, a survey last year showed that over 50% of Britons either love or like the topping A trendy pizzeria in the English city of Norwich has declared war on pineapples, charging an eye-watering ￡100 (US$124) for a Hawaiian in a bid to put customers off the disputed topping. Lupa Pizza recently added pizza topped with ham and pineapple to its account on a food delivery app, writing in the description: “Yeah, for ￡100 you can have it. Order the champagne too! Go on, you monster!” “[We] vehemently dislike pineapple on pizza,” Lupa co-owner Francis Wolf said. “We feel like it doesn’t suit pizza at all,” he said. The other co-owner, head chef Quin Jianoran, said they kept tinned pineapple
RSS