Final UK bid to relaunch South East Asia talks

Date: 18/06/1998

By Mark Turner

TIME is running out for UK efforts to relaunch EU cooperation with the South East Asian trade bloc ASEAN.

There are growing fears that if the opportunity is not seized now, relations with the ten-nation group could languish for considerably longer as big-hitting British diplomats hand over to Austrian counterparts and priorities shift to the Union's eastern frontiers.

The EU has frozen cooperation with ASEAN since Myanmar (Burma) was admitted to the bloc in July last year, refusing to accept Yangon's accession to an EU-ASEAN agreement.

European governments have long condemned the country's poor human rights record, imposing strict limits on contacts with Burmese officials in October 1996 and later withdrawing the EU's Generalised System of Preferences trade benefits.

Myanmar attracted special condemnation following the death in prison of James Leander Nichols, a 65-year-old honorary consul for Denmark, Norway and Finland and friend of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The EU and ASEAN signalled their desire to reopen talks during this April's Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM 2) in London, to define a 'new dynamic' in relations between the blocs.

Although proposals for an EU-ASEAN free trade area have been dropped, both want cooperation to move beyond pure development issues into finance and politics.

The big question is how and under what conditions Myanmar should attend meetings of a new joint cooperation committee (JCC).

ASEAN last year rejected a deal proposed by the EU which would have allowed the country's representative to sit anonymously in the background with no speaking rights, bound by the bloc's rules of non-discrimination and under strong pressure from Myanmar.

But a number of EU member states, especially Denmark, remain adamant that they cannot attend a meeting - even in Thailand, the likely venue for the JCC - where Myanmar delegates are allowed to make official statements.

UK officials say they are keen to find a technical solution to the impasse, as high-profile political involvement could make it impossible for Danish politicians to acquiesce.

They suggest Myanmar's presence could perhaps be recognised by simply making a factual reference to the country in the JCC's conclusions, and they do not rule out the possibility of a compromise by the end of their presidency in two weeks' time.

But an ASEAN member official said European countries and the Commission remained divided over a number of issues, although the Asians were continuing to search for a compromise on Myanmar.

"We have to hope for the best, although we do not know whether we will reach far enough to hold a meeting in September," he said.