Two-day Asean summit starts

The Asean leaders open their two-day meeting today facing a myriad of divisive issues of intra-Asean conflict, controversial chairmanship and enlargement of their 44 year old organizations.

The meeting comes at the time when domestic politics in Singapore and Thailand are making transitions. Senior Minister Professor S. Jayakumar takes part in the summit for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who awaits for the electoral result today. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is attending the summit for the last time as he is calling for a new election.

This is the first summit the Asean leaders have to confront with the possibility of having to discuss the intra-Asean conflict which is brewing between Thailand and Cambodia. Yesterday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Ham Hong raised the border conflict in the plenary session when the foreign ministers met ahead of the summit. It is likely that the Asean leaders could touch on this sensitive issue at their retreat tomorrow.

In addition, they also have to decide if the 2014 chair should be granted to Burma, following the request by Nayphidaw recently. In their discussion yesterday, the Asean foreign minister could not reach a consensus.

Earlier Laos has already agreed to swap with Burma for the chair even though some Asean members thought there should be a strict adherence to the Asean Charter, which is based on the alphabetical rotation. A fact finding team from Asean should be dispatched there to assess the prospective host's readiness and current political situation.

On the issue of enlargement, the Indonesian chair backs Timor Leste's application to join Asean this year while other members, especially Singapore, have reservations citing poverty and lack of human resources. Thailand and Cambodia, albeit their ongoing conflict, shared a common position that Timor Leste should be admitted without condition.

According to an Asean senior official, who asked not to be identified, the Asean leaders could defer the 2014 chair further and Timor Leste's membership further if they could not reach a consensus. "They have rather focused on the issues they have agreed upon," said the official.

Top on the agenda also includes the implementation of Asean Connectivity plan and modality of East Asia Summit.