Amid all the talk of unity and harmony at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia's largest security grouping, conflict still brewed behind closed doors and even boiled over publicly, with normally diplomatic Japan bristling over a confrontation with North Korea.
The North had been praised at the Manila meeting for shutting down its Yongbyon reactor, the first major step in dismantling its nuclear weapons program, and ARF foreign ministers urged the reclusive country to continue on the road to disarmament.
But while North Korea vowed to live up to its commitments, Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun renewed a demand in talks with his South Korean counterpart that the US end its "hostile policy" toward the North, a South Korean official said on Thursday.
There was also an unusual clash as Japan sought to include, in a final joint statement, a reference to the North's past abduction of Japanese citizens. Pak, making his first foreign trip since taking on his new job, responded by criticizing Japan, and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso made a strong rebuttal, Aso spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said.
The issue was only mentioned vaguely in the final statement, with the ministers emphasizing the "importance of addressing the issue of humanitarian and people concerns of the international community."
Myanmar, meanwhile, resisted the creation of a regional human rights body by the ASEAN, worried about interference in its internal affairs. It later acquiesced, but made clear that it does not want the new body to be too strong because it could be combative and embarrass governments.
Myanmar also managed to avoid any specific mention in the final statement of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader held under house arrest.
The two incidents demonstrated how single countries can hijack an agenda or water down public positions, but officials defended the ARF process. Meetings like this also have been criticized as talkfests that produce little but unfulfilled promises. But the diplomats say the fact that disparate countries can sit down and discuss hot topics is the start of real action down the road.
"Give us some time," outgoing ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said. "Before you ever get married, you have to talk to each other. We are building mutual trust, we are talking how to develop long-lasting relationships. Once we get our mutual trust, then we build our projects and programs, and that will not be difficult."
"What we are trying to do here in ASEAN ... is to create an area of peace and stability," said ASEAN's new chairman, Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo.
M. C. Abad, an ARF official, said the forum's 27 members adopted a cooperation framework on transnational crimes, including terrorism, which focuses on ensuring transport security, exchanging information and dealing with the consequences of terrorist acts.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS