U.S. observer status at E. Asia Summit unlikely: Zoellick

Asian Political News, May 16, 2005

SINGAPORE, May 10 Kyodo

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Tuesday that the United States seeks little chance of taking part in the inaugural East Asia Summit later this year in Malaysia as an observer as suggested by Japan recently.

''We don't see the likelihood of us participating as an observer,'' Zoellick told a press conference in Singapore after visits to Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

''I think our participation will be bilaterally with ASEAN and other regional groups, and I think that the discussion of the summit process has moved in a healthy direction emphasizing its inclusive nature,'' he said.

Zoellick said the United States nevertheless remains ''a very active force in this region.''

He cited U.S. efforts to beef up maritime security in Southeast Asia and in reconstruction efforts for countries in the region that were hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami as examples of U.S. engagement.

The absence of any expressions of opposition to the East Asia Summit appeared to indicate that Washington has softened its opposition to the establishment of forums in Asia that exclude it.

Last weekend, Japan floated for a second time the idea of including the United States in the summit, doing so at a meeting of foreign ministers from Southeast and Northeast Asian countries held in Kyoto on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting.

Leaders from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed during their summit meeting in Laos in December last year to hold the first East Asia Summit this year, but left open for consideration by their foreign ministers as to which countries should participate aside from the 10 ASEAN member countries, Japan, China and South Korea.

ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea recently decided to include India at the summit.

There is also a possibility that Australia and New Zealand could be included, though it depends on the two countries agreeing to accede to ASEAN's nonaggression pact, known as the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

An ASEAN official, commenting on Zoellick's remarks, said, ''I think this is a new stand.''

''In the past, U.S. officials had expressed in conversations that if the U.S. is not there in any regional arrangements, they would not be happy. Now they are saying we don't have a problem with the EAS,'' he said.

At the press conference, Zoellick also warned that if Myanmar takes over the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN late next year as scheduled, it could harm ties between the United States and ASEAN due to the country's failure to democratize and its poor human rights record, especially the military regime's continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

''We are very troubled by the events in Burma, the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention, and the lack of movement on the democracy issues, given that Burma is an ASEAN member,'' he said.

''I want to emphasize how we hope that we can work more closely with ASEAN and I also emphasize that if Burma is to chair next year, it will obviously tie our hands. But this is an issue that is for the ASEAN countries, obviously, to decide.''

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.