asean documents of vital interest

Virachai Virameteekul, the PM's Office Minister responsible for screening 11 of the 41 Asean and related documents being ratified in Parliament, spoke with

The  Nation's Nophakhun Limsamarnphun and Piyanart Srivalo.

What is your role?

I was assigned to review 11 documents from the Foreign Ministry. Five of these are pertinent to all 10 Asean members, including Thailand. We must ratify them because we're going to host the Asean Summit from February 27 to March 1.

Another four documents are relevant to Asean and its partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand.

The others regard the framework for negotiations and other issues.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will have to sign the first five, which are essentially the Bangkok Declaration on the Road Map for an Asean Community 2009-15. This declaration has three pillars: security, economic and sociocultural cooperation among the 10 member countries. This follows an earlier ratification of the Asean Charter.

As for the other four documents, Asean would, for instance, enter into an agreement with China, Japan and South Korea - Asean + 3 - for cooperation in food security and biofuel development. One example would be setting up a regional rice stockpile. In terms of Asean + 6, we could cooperate in the area of, say, natural-disaster prevention.

What are other potential benefits?

An Asean-China centre will be set up in Beijing to promote further cooperation between the grouping and that country, with the Chinese agreeing to contribute 90 per cent of the funding.We set up an Asean-Japan Centre earlier, and Australia has offered US$57 million [Bt2 billion] for development projects involving Asean and Australia.

What else?

Asean also intends to reduce disparities between older and newer members, as they're in different stages of development. We have the six original members of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei, while on the other hand Cambodia, Burma, Laos and Vietnam joined the grouping later.

Moreover, Asean countries will support the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which emphasise poverty reduction within the region.

What about the 10th and 11th documents being scrutinised by your office?

One of these two regards the framework for negotiations, while the other is pertinent to human-rights issues. As the host of the Asean Summit, we could raise a number of topical issues as far as human rights are concerned, such as the unrest in southern Thailand; minority groups, especially hilltribes; Rohingya and other refugees; and illegal labour.

We could  start the process of working together to tackle these and other issues through consultations andexchanges of information. However, we'll continue to ensure that member countries do not intervene in one another's internal affairs.

The upcoming Asean Summit is an excellent opportunity for Thailand to showcase its regional leadership. Not only are we the host country, but Surin Pitsuwan, the present Asean secretary-general, also comes from Thailand.