ASEAN urged to retain central role in global, regional affairs

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should retain its central role in international and regional issues, given the moderated position of the 10 member countries, its Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said Tuesday.

Speaking at the lecture series organized by Malaysia's Global Movement of Moderates Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Surin said ASEAN should keep its central role as countries around the bloc are entangled with heavy historical burdens.

"ASEAN has been given the middle role, the centrality," he said. "we serve as that driving force to create a new architecture in East Asia."

ASEAN provides a more comfort platforms for other countries to solve disputes, he told the audience that mainly consisted of academics, government officials and diplomats, saying he hopes China and Japan, which have been embroiled in territorial disputes recently, will meet "at the highest level" during the upcoming ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

Surin, whose tenure as ASEAN secretary general is ending by the end of this year, hailed the achievements by the regional group in opening up and economic prosperity since its establishment four decades ago.

"Our market has been integrated, we are attracting a lot of interest around the world. Many major powers are knocking on our door, trying to come in, even they are far away on the other side of the globe."

He also praised the value of moderation embraced by ASEAN countries. "We could only be here because we stood firm on what we believed in, and that is the way of moderation", he said.

First mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the UN General Assembly in 2010, the concept of Global Movement of Mederates was adopted by the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh in April.

During his speech, Surin also urged the 10 ASEAN members, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to further promote and practise the ASEAN charter, which he dubbed as the "roadmap to the future" of the regional bloc.

He said the charter must be a "living document" among the 600 million people living in Southeast Asia, if ASEAN want to be active in the international arena and to create confidence among potential investors.

"For four decades, we are trying to be very accommodating to each other, trying to bring each other along, trying to find reasons to excuse each other for not following the commitment."

"But then the world has changed, this (the ASEAN chapter) has become the center of growth,"he said.-The Philippine Star (October 30, 2012 10:00PM)