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Reuters-Vietnam says no EU-ASEAN me



Subject: Reuters-Vietnam says no EU-ASEAN meeting without Myanmar

Vietnam says no EU-ASEAN meeting without Myanmar
05:47 a.m. Feb 23, 1999 Eastern
HANOI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Vietnam said on Tuesday that a planned European
Union meeting with Southeast Asian countries would be shelved if Myanmar was
not able to participate.

Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and several Scandinavian members of the EU
have opposed granting a visa to Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung to attend
the Berlin gathering because of the country's human rights record.

Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said Myanmar enjoyed
the same position in ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) as
the other eight members.

``Vietnam considers Myanmar a full member of ASEAN and thus it should be
allowed to participate in the ASEAN-EU meeting scheduled for March 30 in
Berlin,'' Thanh said in response to questions from Reuters.

``If there is no participation of Myanmar, the meeting will not take
place,'' she added.

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

All EU member governments have been keen to meet ASEAN members other than
Myanmar and do not want to sour relations.

Indonesia has said the meeting would be cancelled if the row was not
resolved.