Published on November 18, 2005
Southeast Asian leaders are hoping to talk trade when they meet US President George W Bush today, but yet again the military junta in Burma is casting a long shadow. Burma is not even a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum that is meeting in the South Korean city of Busan this week. But even from afar it is proving a source of embarrassment for the seven leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) attending.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Burma firmly on the Apec agenda on Wednesday when she called the country “one of the worst regimes in the world” and chided Asean for failing to speak out about human rights abuses.
The meeting in Busan between Bush and the leaders of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam has already ruffled some feathers in the regional block. Cambodia is upset the talks are being billed as a “US-Asean” meeting as it does not involve all 10 of Asean’s members. Cambodia, Laos and Burma are not members of Apec. The Cambodian foreign ministry has sent a letter to current Asean chair Malaysia demanding that any statement issued in Busan should not be called an Asean document. Rice on Wednesday expressed frustration that Asean was not doing enough to push Burma to implement democratic reforms. “I understand that a lot of countries that are neighbours of Burma feel the need to engage them, but I would hope that that engagement also takes the form of being serious about the really quite, quite appalling human rights situation in Burma.” The two sides also publicly revealed their vision on the US-Asean Enhanced Partnership that covers a wide range of issues, from trade and investment to political and development between the two sides. Thai Foreign Ministry, in a statement yesterday, said the Partnership will help provide a channel through which the US can help reduce the development gap in the region. Agence France-Presse, The Nation BUSAN, South Korea
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