Southeast Asian foreign ministers yesterday ended a week of meetings with world powers on resolving regional conflicts and winning help for their troubled economies, but critics said the forum was all talk and no action.
The 10-member ASEAN met big-power partners like China, Japan, India, the EU and the US in Vietnam to discuss the many conflicts -- past, present and future -- that hang over the region.
Ministers told a closing news conference the talks had been very constructive. But some ASEAN members said the group had to reform and match words with action, or risk becoming irrelevant.
"I think we are all aware that we in ASEAN are still going through a very difficult patch, not only because of the global international gloomy outlook, but also many of us have internal problems, political transitional problems," said S. Jayakumar, Singapore's foreign minister. "In a sense, ASEAN has to regroup. But the most important thing is acknowledgement of our problems."
ASEAN is struggling to retain its credibility in a post-Cold War world where it is no longer of importance as a bulwark against communism. To make matters worse, its once-thriving economies are in crisis.
At a time of economic downturn it now faces the difficult task of trying to integrate the poorer economies of former enemies Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and of military-ruled pariah Myanmar.
Center of attention during the week's meetings was a further thaw in the frosty relationship between the US and China, underlining ASEAN's struggle to avoid being sidelined by its giant neighbor.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Vietnam for the first time since he fought there more than three decades ago, is due to hold further meetings in Beijing today.
A meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) -- Asia's key security grouping -- discussed the political changes in Indonesia, tensions on the Korean peninsula, and US-China relations.
But although participants said discussions had been frank and honest, some were frustrated that the ARF remained just a talking shop for "confidence building" and had not yet evolved a more proactive role in resolving and preventing regional conflicts.
Little progress was made during the week on one of the region's main concerns -- relations with North Korea. Its representative told the forum Washington was attaching too many preconditions to a resumption of talks.
Powell insisted the US was willing to hold talks anytime and anywhere, without preconditions.
Pyongyang's foreign minister did not even attend the gathering, saying he was "too busy."
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