Brussels/Beijing, 28/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The ASEM Ministers for Foreign Affairs, have endorsed, last Friday, following a "positive and pragmatic" meeting in Beijing, a joint declaration bearing witness to a desire to deepen, improve and extend inter-regional cooperation and to contribute towards the development of a multipolar world, more stable, harmonious, sustainable, leaving space for the "rule of law, human rights, including the right to development, and fundamental freedoms". The 26 show their support - rather difficulty won - in favour of the Kyoto Protocol, inter-Korean reconciliation, the launching of a new round of negotiations at the WTO, as of next autumn, on the basis of a balanced a wide ranging agenda", territorial integrity and respect for the rights of minorities in the Balkans. They agreed to develop their dialogue on the United Nations, including in the framework of consultations before the General Assembly session, and on the world strategic balance (disarmament, armament controls), to enhance their cooperation in the social, cultural, educational, societal fields and the launch action programmes - which will be highly visible - to fight against the trafficking of people, in particular women and children, are among the five new initiatives.
This seven page text, officially described as "wide ranging and constructive" - but copiously watered down compared to the previous plan proposed by the Europeans (more substantial, notably in its political scope), has the merit of not watering down most of the truly delicate issues, which divide the ASEM partners (human rights, participation in ASEM, Balkans, Korea, NMD, etc), ASEM (WTO, environment), which collide with the new reserve of the United States (Kyoto, Korean peninsula). So many themes broached using, through he reality of things - given the level of the differences between the two regions, as well as within ASEM, sometimes also in the Union, such as over the American plan for anti-missile defence (NMD) - the smallest common denominator to reach a common ground and consensual formulas. Through careful reading, this text becomes interesting, emphasised a European spokesperson, when recalling: the ASEM process is ten times more formal than others due to the heterogeneous nature of the Asian group (where consensus is the rule: Ed), and because it is strictly intergovernmental. The Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Louis Michel, who will take on the Presidency of the Union Council next July, questioned himself over the "use of a dialogue that is only a juxtaposition of points of view", as well as the usefulness of having as many delegations (ED.: up to 100 members in the Japanese team and 74 from Germany), and such a mechanism for a preconceived result". He went on to regret, with his European partners, that too many questions were raised and the points on the agenda were too varied for real debate. All parties, and above all the Asian party, felt that the high level of representation of European delegations, nearly all conducted by foreign ministers who usually tend to desist at the last minute, is an illustration of the relative success of this session and renewed ambition for a Eurasian forum.
"This meeting is focused on political dialogue, which is not really to the Asians' liking" as they prefer to focus on the transfer of technology from the West to the East and on economic development, said a senior European official stressing, on the eve of the ministerial session, that it is already obvious how difficult it is to speak together. He was referring to the need to have political leaders intervene to settle Euro-Asian dissension over:
1. Korea. Europeans, who hoped that ASEM would subscribe to a text that recognises the North Korean commitment to maintain the moratorium on missile tests until 2003 and who referred to the forthcoming opening of discussions with Pyongang on human rights (beginning with the seminar held in Brussels on 11 and 12 June), received a blunt refusal from China to approve a document that, in their eyes, amounts to "interference", "external pressure that would put North Korea up against the wall", according to a European diplomat. The Union, however, was congratulated by its partners for the results of the recent missions by the Troika to the Peninsula. The partners, however, simply noted the report made by the European party of discussions on reconciliation between the two Koreas, the moratorium and related security issues, humanitarian affairs, human rights and "other issues".
2. Description of the situation in the Balkans, with an inextricable "conflict of vocabulary" between Greece, "closer to the Serb point of view", and Malaysia, "taking the side of the Bosnian Muslims", as one person close to discussion circles said.
The outcome was a complete rehashing of the document proposed by the Europeans and a very much vaguer no longer mentioning FYROM, but calling for the respect of international state borders and human rights, including the rights of all ethnic and minority groups, as stressed by the Zagreb Summit and strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region and the inviolability of their recognised international borders.
3. participation in ASEM. Countries are knocking at the Forum's gates - Norway, Russia, Switzerland, CEECs, India, etc - along with three ASEAN countries that are currently excluded - Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia - etc. The last three have presented their applications together, and the next Foreign Ministers meeting (to be held in Madrid in 2002) is expected to get down to business and may allow the countries to join, although this is still prevented at the moment by European demands for a gradual improvement in human rights in Myanmar and in the very basic dialogue between the military junta in power and the opposition.
The final press conference, which Commissioner Chris Patten did not attend since he had "urgent business to deal with", was largely dominated by the comments of the Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jia Xuan and comments by the Co-Chairs of the meeting, his Vietnamese counterpart Nyugen Dy Nien, the President of the Council of the EU Anna Lindh and the Director of relations with the Far East at the European Commission, Fokion Fotiadis. Mr Tang felt that the ministerial meeting on a new partnership for the new century had met its four objectives - strengthening mutual understanding, extending areas of agreement, encouraging cooperation and building closer relations - and had clearly led to results: the strengthening of political relations (often on global or regional issues where the ASEM countries are not involved), promoting partnership and cooperation, the consultation mechanism on regional European and Asian affairs, dialogue on the United Nations, strengthened trade and economic cooperation, detailed discussions on globalisation and geopolitical equilibrium in the world, etc. He said that the success of the meeting showed that the world is moving faster towards multipolarisation. Ms Lindh focussed on welcoming the strengthening of political dialogue and supplemented Mr Tang's assessment by highlighting "new themes" at the meeting - support for a new round of trade negotiations, the call for countries to join the WTO as soon as possible, support for the Kyoto Process and the alignment of the two Koreas and reforms of the UN. Mr Fotiadis stressed, on top of the support for a new trade round, the interest of the Asian representatives for turning ASEM into a more informal, interactive process to make it more effective.