NEWS - US committed to Asia-Pacific

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - US committed to Asia-Pacific area Albright 

Via the Irish Times

Monday, July 26, 1999 

US committed to Asia-Pacific area Albright 

                                       The US: The US Secretary of
State, Ms
                                       Madeleine Albright, underscored
US
                                       commitment to Asia yesterday with
a flurry of
                                       meetings with regional
counterparts after
                                       months of US preoccupation with
Europe.

                                       "The United States has been
paying a lot of
                                       attention to the Balkans and
Europe lately but
                                       we have not lost sight of the
rest of the world,"
                                       she said in Singapore. 

                                       "No region of the world is of
greater importance
                                       to US interests or to the future
of world stability
                                       and peace than the Asia-Pacific,"
she said. 

                                       Yesterday she had seven bilateral
meetings -
                                       including talks with the Indian
and Chinese
                                       foreign ministers - on the eve of
the Association
                                       of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) Regional
                                       Forum on security. 

                                       Ms Albright said she hoped for
progress on
                                       subjects ranging from
China-Taiwan relations
                                       and Spratly islands tensions to
concern over
                                       stability in South Asia and the
Korean
                                       peninsula, fears of Indonesian
unrest, and
                                       human rights in Burma. 

                                       Most of those topics were covered
in part in her
                                       meetings yesterday with the
Chinese Foreign
                                       Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, and
the Indian
                                       Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant
Singh, during

                                       which she urged restraint on
Taiwan and
                                       Kashmir and stressed the
importance
                                       Washington places on nuclear
                                       non-proliferation.

                                       Mr Tang said he warned the US
against
                                       stoking the flames of
independence in Taiwan
                                       and also discussed efforts to
mend ties with
                                       Washington after the May bombing
of the
                                       Chinese embassy in Belgrade in
US-led NATO
                                       air raids.

                                       Mr Singh reaffirmed his country's
commitment
                                       to ratifying a nuclear test ban
treaty and
                                       thanked the US for its role in
easing tensions in
                                       Kashmir, US officials said.

                                       "I want to make clear that
Rangoon [the old
                                       name of Burma's capital, Yangon]
should talk to
                                       the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi," Ms
Albright
                                       said, referring to the dissident
leader and her
                                       National League for Democracy.

                                       Today, Ms Albright is expected to
take up the
                                       issue of Indonesia in earnest,
meeting the
                                       Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr
Ali Alatas.

                                       She is to tell him that
Washington expects
                                       Jakarta to make good on its
promises for a
                                       peaceful transition to a new
government as well
                                       as a free and fair vote in East
Timor next month
                                       on an offer of autonomy.