Published on July 25, 2005

Russia is the latest country to knock on Asean’s door seeking to join the East Asia Summit to be held for the first time in Malaysia in mid-December, a senior Asean official said yesterday.

Moscow sent a letter to Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad, who currently holds Asean’s rotating chair, two weeks ago asking to participate in the summit, said Lao Deputy Foreign Minister Bounkeut Sangsomsak, who chaired a meeting of senior Asean officials yesterday.

The meeting agreed to take the Russian request into consideration, he said.

Asean, together with China, Japan and South Korea, agreed last year to hold a regular summit in Southeast Asia to boost cooperation among countries in the region.

The meeting yesterday agreed upon the format of the East Asia Summit, which will be chaired by Asean and held in the capital city of an Asean state every three years.

Australia, New Zealand, India and Mongolia have expressed interest in joining the meetings, Bounkeut said.

Asean has not yet decided on these requests but set criteria that members of the summit should be full dialogue partners of Asean and must have acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. Asean will discuss the matter again in Kuala Lumpur in August, he said.

Russia has already acceded to the treaty while New Zealand and Mongolia will sign it on Thursday at the Vientiane meeting, Bounkeut said.

Australia will announce in Vientiane its intention to join the treaty, which will be ratified by the Australian parliament before the summit in Kuala Lumpur, he said.

The senior Asean officials yesterday also agreed to allow Pakistan, New Zealand and South Korea to become party to the group’s Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism, Bounkeut said.

Foreign ministers of the three countries will sign the document with Somsavat on Friday, he said.

The Asean officials did not discuss the controversial issue of Burma’s upcoming chairmanship of the bloc, but the foreign ministers might touch on the matter when they meet at a retreat today in the Lao capital, Bounkeut said.

The group is not divided on the matter and would consider the issue with unity, he said.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Vientiane

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