ASEAN, China open up markets

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed a much-awaited economic cooperation deal with China yesterday as the ten-nation bloc held a flurry of talks on trade and security across the region.

After signing the trade accord with China, the ASEAN leaders also met the leaders of Japan and South Korea as well as emerging power India.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the 10 ASEAN leaders launched the busy day of diplomacy by signing a deal to open up access to each other's markets.

The accord, which comes into effect later this year, will liberalize services sectors ranging from tourism and telecoms to energy and computers, as China looks to bolster its economic and trade clout in the region.

"This is a major result for our economic and trade cooperation," Wen told his fellow leaders in a speech at the 12th ASEAN Summit at the Shangri-la's Mactan Island Resort.

"We are friendly neighbors and also important strategic partners."

The signing, Wen said, "has laid the foundation for the timely completion" of an ASEAN-China free trade agreement scheduled for 2010.

Facing the growing influence of China and India, the ASEAN on Saturday reaffirmed a pledge to create its own economic community with free movement of goods, services, investment and people by 2015.

But the bloc was holding talks on separate trade agreements and other issues with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Abe, Roh and Wen were also readying for the first three-way summit between the countries in two years, as Japan looks to repair relations that were strained by Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi.

The three leaders are expected to focus on the situation on the Korean peninsula following North Korea's surprise nuclear weapons test in October and the scant progress made since then in international talks with Pyongyang.

Ties were frayed by Koizumi's controversial visits to a Tokyo war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's militarist past. There have also been disputes over oil drilling rights at sea and some small islands in the area.

Japan also hopes to get a firm date for a visit this year by Chinese leaders.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard arrived in Cebu and his New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark was due later ahead of today's second annual East Asia Summit, a new 16-nation grouping.

Last Saturday, the ASEAN leaders ended their own summit with pledges to get tougher on terrorism, move faster towards the single market and reshape the bloc to keep pace with the competition of the 21st century.

They signed their first convention on fighting terrorism and pledged to create a charter that would transform the group into a legal entity with European Union-style rules and regulations.

Myanmar Issue

President Arroyo has urged military-ruled Myanmar to free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and take "concrete" steps to democracy.

Arroyo, who had a closed-door meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit Saturday, expressed hope the extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest last May "would be the last."

She said Myanmar's engagement with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is encouraging but such visits must yield "more concrete and meaningful results" in future.

Her comments to Soe Win, as reported in the document, were stronger than the official position of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In their post-summit statement, ASEAN leaders encouraged fellow member Myanmar to "make greater progress towards national reconciliation." They called for the release of detainees but did not name the democracy leader.

Arroyo also said Myanmar should consider the desire expressed by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy to be consulted by the government, and added that "dialogue and compromise should be an ongoing process."

She said there was "tremendous concern" in the international community about the 61-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, and expressed hope that her request for more regular medical attention would be granted.

Arroyo also noted the positive developments in recent months, including a decline in the number of cases filed against individuals lodging forced labor complaints against the government.

Soe Win, according to a diplomatic source, explained his country's "road map" to democracy and what he termed internal problems.

Battle Against Terrorism

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that it is now up to our Congress and the parliaments of other members countries to ratify the ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism. He is hopeful that it will be ratified by the country's legislative body especially that the initiative to adopt one came from the Philippines.

The accord, which was a milestone aimed at curbing terrorism activities in the region, is a legally binding pact which takes effect on the 30th day after a sixth member-country shall have ratified and approved it with the ASEAN Secretary-General.

The Philippines has its own parallel national legislation, the Anti-terror Bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives at the call of President Arroyo in October 2005.

The bill is now pending in the Senate, with opposition expressing alarm that it would be abused by the leaders "to quell legitimate dissent."

With its adoption, Southeast Asia has moved closer to the realization of an ASEAN Security Community (ASC), Arroyo said in a press release.

The ASC is one of the three pillars of an ASEAN Community envisioned for the region, the other two of which are economic and socio-cultural.

The Southeast Asian region particularly Indonesia and the Philippines have been targets of several terrorist attacks in recent years and the adoption of the Convention on Counter-Terrorism in the region is perceived as answer to the problem. It provides framework for regional cooperation to counter, prevent and suppress terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.- AFP, Cristina Birondo and Wenna Berondo