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Indonesia to chair ASEAN as Hanoi summit kicks off
Indonesia will take over chairing ASEAN from Brunei and will host the group’s summit next year after Brunei agreed to hand over chairmanship to Jakarta during a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday
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ndonesia will take over chairing ASEAN from Brunei and will host the group’s summit next year after Brunei agreed to hand over chairmanship to Jakarta during a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday.
Jakarta was initially supposed to chair the group and host the summit in 2013.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Brunei agreed to Indonesia’s proposal to host next year’s summit following lobbying by Indonesia.
“We decided to swap with Brunei because we will host the APEC meeting in 2013. Jakarta wants
to give full attention to both the APEC and ASEAN summits,” Faizasyah, who is in Hanoi, told The Jakarta Post via text message late Thursday.
He added, however, that “the matter will be decided by ASEAN leaders”.
Earlier, quoting an informed source, the Nation reported that ASEAN foreign ministers agreed last night to permit Indonesia to serve as the next ASEAN chair following Jakarta’s request due to future schedule conflicts.
An Indonesian official told the Post that Singapore was still undecided whether to agree to Indonesia’s chairing of the group for the next year.
The 16th ASEAN summit was officially opened Thursday in Hanoi with the absence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva due to domestic turmoil following protracted protests by anti-government demonstrators demanding fresh elections.
“We express our hope that the situation in Thailand can quickly return to normal,” Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.
On Wednesday, ASEAN economic ministers agreed on the entry into force of the ASEAN trade in goods agreement next month and the comprehensive investment agreement in August this year.
Also on Wednesday, the summit saw the official inauguration of the ASEAN Commission on Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, considered a milestone in the
evolution of ASEAN in terms of protecting the rights of women and children.
On Thursday, ASEAN foreign ministers signed a protocol to set up a dispute settlement mechanism (dsm), the details of which are to be hammered out at the ASEAN ministerial meeting in July.
Marty said the DSM was aimed at resolving disputes between ASEAN states and not necessarily
to resolve internal issues within a state.
Marty said, however, that Indonesia’s stance was clear. “We want Myanmar to fulfill its commitment to hold independent, trans-parent, democratic and inclusive elections.”
He added, however, that Indonesia had also been reminding fellow ASEAN member states that the group could not expect
a perfect elections in Myanmar instantly, saying that “otherwise we will even not be able to see
development”.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the
summit carried an important mandate of setting the directions and appropriate solutions to accelerate ASEAN integration and address regional issues and global challenges.
