A rchive Date
[ 08-10-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Indonesia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/10/07/219025-ap.html
Southeast Asian leaders turn focus to ties with China, India and Japan
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Wed, October 8, 2003
BALI, Indonesia (AP) - Seeking to avoid economic domination by larger neighbours siphoning off trade and investment, 10 Southeast Asian countries tried Wednesday to co-opt their main competitors - China, India and Japan - by concluding various strategic agreements with them.
At its summit on Indonesia's Bali island, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also created an ambitious network of security treaties meant to underpin its plans for a European-like economic community by 2020. China and India became the first outside powers to accede to ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Co-operation, the group's founding non-aggression pact, which renounces the use of force and calls for greater political and economic co-operation.
The two countries and Japan signed separate agreements with ASEAN on Wednesday aimed at reducing trade barriers as a precursor to an eventual free-trade zone spanning most of Asia.
Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said an Asian common market was necessary because of the success of other trade blocs around the world, primarily the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Southeast Asia is seeking to dull competitive pressures from India, China and Japan by turning them into partners instead of rivals. Many in the Southeast Asian grouping are concerned that their larger Asian neighbours will overpower ASEAN economically, attracting investment and trade needed for development in a region whose 500 million inhabitants face huge disparities in wealth.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand. It was founded in 1967 as a loose anti-communist grouping, but over the years has steadily evolved into an association that includes communist countries as well as an absolute monarchy and a military dictatorship.
In the past, many have dismissed the group as all talk and no action. But its latest summit saw an unprecedented number of accords that aim to transform the region.
A free-trade agreement with China, slated for 2010, would create the world's largest market, with 1.7 billion consumers.
"It's good for the region. It's good for the rest of the world," Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said.
ASEAN-China trade amounted to $55.4 billion US in 2001, with trade growing by an average of 25.7 per cent annually from 1993 to 2001, according to the latest ASEAN statistics.
Meanwhile, India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inked an investment and trade agreement and adopted a separate accord to co-operate in the fight against international terrorism.
"It will be implemented. All countries will join hands," Vajpayee told The Associated Press after the signing ceremony.
Also Wednesday, Japan moved to bolster its big stake in Southeast Asia, concluding a framework agreement with ASEAN to reduce tariffs and other barriers in a free-trade zone that both sides hope will go into effect within a decade.
Japan traditionally has been ASEAN's largest trading partner and investor, with two-way trade amounting to $99.2 billion in 2001 or 14.4 per cent of ASEAN's total trade. However, unlike China's growing stake, Japan has seen its ASEAN trade drop from a peak of $121.2 billion in 1995.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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