Trade, Security Focus of ASEAN Summit

Leaders of six Southeast Asian nations, which include some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, convened a summit Monday to map plans for a common trade policy and to discuss the security of their region in the post-Cold War era.

Judging by the decisions taken at the ministerial level before the summit, the only concrete agreement likely to emerge from the meeting is a proposal to create a Southeast Asian free trade area that over the next 15 years would eliminate tariffs on most manufactured goods shipped from a member country to its neighbors.

The six heads of state and government represent the nations in the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, which are Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. The summit meeting was only the fourth conference of the six nations’ leaders since the group was formed in the 1960s as most of the Southeast Asian countries emerged from colonialism.

During the 1970s, the glue that held ASEAN together was mutual opposition to Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia. Now, virtually all of the ASEAN states have established increasingly friendly relations with Hanoi, but are divided over their relationship with the United States.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, the ASEAN leader who is perhaps the most critical of the West, was still angered by President Bush’s opposition to formation of an Asian trade bloc able to negotiate equally with the United States and a united Europe.

The proposed East Asia Economic Caucus gained the support of Singapore and Thailand, but Indonesia and Japan oppose the plan out of concern that it would further alienate the United States and Asia. Discussion of the plan has been shelved.

Ministers were unable to overcome differences on security cooperation in the region and decided to leave the question to the meeting that follows ASEAN’s annual gathering of foreign ministers. Those talks include the United States and other regional powers.

The decision reflects the continuing frictions and different security concerns among the ASEAN states, such as rival claims to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The islands are claimed by Malaysia, the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Taiwan.

The one area of apparently total agreement came on the question of an ASEAN free trade area.

The proposal aims to give ASEAN states, which now mostly export goods to Japan and the United States, a kind of domestic market for their wares.