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NEWS - Taiwan-China Tensions To Ste
- Subject: NEWS - Taiwan-China Tensions To Ste
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 21:47:00
Subject: NEWS - Taiwan-China Tensions To Steal Show At ASEAN Meet
Friday, Jul 23
Taiwan-China Tensions To Steal Show At ASEAN Meet
SINGAPORE, Jul 19, 1999 --
(Reuters)
Taiwan-China tensions are
expected to
steal the spotlight at this
week's
meeting of Southeast Asian
foreign
ministers in Singapore.
Although regional territorial
disputes
will be a key topic during
official
meetings of the Association of
South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
which
begin on Friday, simmering
security
issues such as Taiwan-China
tensions
will be a focus on the
sidelines.
In a security dialogue after
the main
foreign ministerial meetings,
Tokyo is
expected to urge ASEAN and its
dialogue partners to help
persuade
North Korea not to test-fire
another
long-range missile.
U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright is scheduled to meet
her
Chinese counterpart, Foreign
Minister
Tang Jiaxuan, on the sidelines
of the
32nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting
(AMM).
Both nations are attending the
meeting
as dialogue partners.
Political analysts have said
the China-Taiwan spat will
give the U.S. and Chinese
administrations a chance to
begin talking to each other
following a deep freeze in
relations since early May when
U.S. warplanes bombed
China's embassy in Belgrade.
An ASEAN official said Taiwan
Strait tensions were
unlikely to be discussed within
the auspices of the
regional grouping as China,
which sees Taiwan as a
renegade province that must be
brought under its rule,
regards it as a domestic issue.
Still, the heightened tensions
between China and Taiwan
will highlight one of the more
pressing issues for the
ASEAN meeting -- that of
regional security.
Disputes over ownership of the
potentially mineral-rich
Spratly islands remains an area
of contention among
ASEAN members and will be taken
on by this week's
ministerial meeting.
The Spratly islands lie in the
South China Sea and are
claimed wholly or in part by
the Philippines, China,
Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia and
Vietnam.
ASEAN groups Cambodia, Brunei,
Laos, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.
The Philippines and Malaysia
argued recently over
Malaysia's building of
structures on the reef, while
relations between the
Philippines and China over the
Spratlys were also strained.
Philippines Foreign Secretary
Domingo Siazon will submit
a code of conduct on the
Spratlys for discussion among
ASEAN ministers.
He said he expected general
agreement on the code
except for a clause barring
construction or expansion of
structures on the Spratlys.
North Korea's missile program
is another issue likely to be
raised by Japan at the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF), a
key regional security dialogue
that will take place on July
26 after ASEAN's main
ministerial meetings.
A Japanese foreign ministry
official said Japan was likely
to urge ASEAN and its dialogue
partners to cooperate
with each other to persuade
North Korea not to test-fire
another missile.
The Regional Forum comprises
ASEAN and its 12
dialogue partners. During a
Post Ministerial Conference
from July 27-28 ASEAN will meet
its regional dialogue
partners individually.
ASEAN's dialogue partners are
Australia, Canada, China,
the European Union, India,
Japan, Mongolia, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
Russia, South Korea and
the United States.
ASEAN's newer members, Cambodia
and Myanmar, have
featured in the world arena for
domestic political
developments, but the regional
grouping is likely to stick
to its policy of
non-interference in its relations with
member countries.
Despite calls by Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi for ASEAN to encourage
dialogue between her
National League for Democracy
and the country's
generals, and Amnesty
International's urging for pressure
on Yangon over human rights,
ASEAN is not expected to
shift from this stance. ((c)
1999 Reuters)