HUA HIN, Thailand – The 15th annual ASEAN Leaders’ Summit officially started yesterday at the Dusit Thani Hotel in the resort town of Cha-am, Hua Hin some 300 kilometers south of Bangkok, Thailand.
The ASEAN Plus Six Leaders’ Summit was abruptly cancelled last April when the red shirt supporters of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra virtually stormed the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel Resort in Pattaya, the summit venue.
This forced the emergency evacuation of the ASEAN leaders, including President Arroyo who was flown by helicopter to a nearby Thai Air Force base to take her flight out of Thailand.
The official theme for the 15th ASEAN summit is “Enhancing Connectivity, Empowering Peoples” giving utmost importance to improving the connectivity of the people in ASEAN in physical and spiritual terms.
Many of the topics that the ASEAN leaders will discuss will touch on the promotion of educational and cultural cooperation among ASEAN members.
ASEAN leaders as well as leaders of neighboring countries like Australia, Japan, Korea, China, New Zealand and India have come to the summit in an apparent show of trust and confidence in Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who had lost face because of the April incident.
Acting Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said that 36,000 security personnel have been deployed in the Hua Hin resort town and its surroundings.
Special routes to the conference site will provide easy traffic access to the hotels and resorts where the ASEAN leaders and their support teams are billeted. Escape routes by land, air and sea have also been devised and the entire Thai armed forces are on high alert for any untoward incidents as the Abhisit government vowed never to allow a repeat of the incident last April.
The Thai government has spent 296 million baht on security, including the purchase of 20 bulletproof Range Rovers at the cost of 160 million baht. The gala dinner alone costs 16.5 million baht.
As of press time, there were no signs of any disturbances from the supporters of Shinawatra.
Yesterday, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromiya held a press briefing on the outcome of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC), the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers with the High Level Legal Experts panel on follow up to the ASEAN Charter (HLEG) and the meeting of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council (ASCC) on the preparation for the summits, the topics of discussions as well as the list of outcome documents.
There are 43 documents to be signed, adopted or noted by leaders, foreign ministers, economic ministers and socio-cultural ministers.
The foreign ministers will also sign the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of ASEAN as well as a memorandum of understanding on Establishing an ASEAN-China Center.
The meeting also considered two reports presented by the secretary-general on the operations of the ASEAN Secretariat and on the progress made in the implementation of the Roadmap to an ASEAN Community.
Also approved was the ASEAN Secretariat budget for the 2010 fiscal year.
In response to the recent natural disasters that struck many countries in the region, the ministers underlined the need to strengthen cooperation in the area of disaster relief and humanitarian response, in order to enhance ASEAN’s capacity to respond to disasters in a more timely and effective manner. These include close cooperation with the military and civil society.
At the opening ceremonies, the Thai Prime Minister said, “We now formally have in place the ASEAN Charter that will make the organization truly rules-based and more effective in enforcing what has been agreed upon among member states. To make this achievement more tangible, we have adopted the Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community to guide our community-building efforts in all three pillars. Indeed, an ASEAN Community has begun to institutionally come into place. The Committee of Permanent Representatives in Jakarta has been fully operationalized, and the three ASEAN Community Councils have already convened their respective meetings to map out measures to achieve the targets and goals envisaged by the Charter.”
Human rights body
ASEAN leaders launched yesterday the first ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).
The leaders also announced the “Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on the Inauguration of the AICHR” to pledge full support to this new ASEAN body, a major initiative of the Philippines and the first regional human rights body in the Asia-Pacific, and emphasized their commitment to further develop cooperation to promote and protect human rights in the region.
The establishment of the AICHR provided the concrete expression of Article 14 of the ASEAN Charter and ASEAN’s commitment to build a more people-oriented ASEAN Community.
The body was mandated to promote and protect human rights by promoting public awareness and education, providing advice services and capacity building to government agencies and ASEAN bodies, developing regional norms, obtaining information from member states, engaging with stakeholders and other institutions, conducting studies on thematic issues as well as preparing reports for the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, in accordance with its Terms of Reference prepared by the High Level Panel and approved by ASEAN foreign ministers in July.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said President Arroyo has appointed Ambassador Rosario Manalo to represent the Philippines in the AICHR.
Manalo assisted former President Fidel Ramos in the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), and led the Philippine delegation in the High Level Task Force (HLTF) and the High Level Panel (HLP).
Off to Thailand
President Arroyo leaves for Thailand today for the ASEAN summit in spite of criticisms that she is leaving the country in the midst of another typhoon.
The President was one of four ASEAN heads of state who missed the opening ceremony of the summit.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak were the other leaders who skipped the opening ceremony.
Malacañang initially announced that Mrs. Arroyo would be in Thailand Friday night but this was subsequently moved to tomorrow morning.
Mrs. Arroyo yesterday visited anew the second district of Pampanga.
The President’s critics, including Gov. Ed Panlilio, have criticized her frequent visits to the second district as a form of “early and irregular” campaigning allegedly in her bid to seek a congressional post in next year’s elections.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that the President had actually delayed her departure for Thailand because of the entry of typhoon “Ramil” in order to personally monitor the preparations being undertaken by the concerned government agencies.
Remonde said that the President would have a full schedule in Thailand and the trip would practically be just an overnight stay.
Upon her arrival at the summit, Remonde said the President will attend a working lunch between the ASEAN heads of state and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council.
This will be followed by the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) summit to be participated in by the heads of state of ASEAN and the three dialogue partners.
On Sunday, Remonde said that the President would hold bilateral meetings with her counterparts from Japan, New Zealand and Australia where they will discuss matters of mutual interest.
The President would also join the ASEAN-India and the ASEAN Plus Three plus India, New Zealand and Australia meetings. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Marvin Sy, Ding Cervantes, AP