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ndonesia will end its term as chair of ASEAN next month. During its chairmanship, Indonesia, which hosted the 19th ASEAN Summit and related summits in Bali last week, took up a number of issues, such as Myanmar’s 2014 chairmanship bid, Timor Leste’s membership application, the South China Sea disputes and the Thai-Cambodia border conflict. The Jakarta Post’s Mustaqim Adamrah talked to Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa about the country’s ASEAN chairmanship so far. Below are excerpts from the interview:

Question: How do you assess Indonesia’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year?

Answer: The year of 2011 has certainly been eventful. We have been on target concerning three key
priorities.

First, we wanted to ensure significant progress in ASEAN community-building; second, we aimed to ensure the region remained peaceful and stable to therefore allow all our states to pursue economic development; and third, we aimed to bring the ASEAN Community into a global community of nations.

So, deliberately from the beginning of the year, we had three levels: the ASEAN level, ASEAN within the wider region and, finally, ASEAN and the world.

What are your views about the development of conflict resolution efforts regarding the Thai-Cambodia border dispute?

There are issues that we did not foresee, and which we had to quickly respond to; the Thailand-Cambodia situation in February 2011, for example, when there was an outbreak of actual shooting and exchanges of artillery fire. This was not of ASEAN’s making; this situation existed even before ASEAN existed.

In contrast to how we may have reacted in the past, when perhaps ASEAN would have turned away, pretending that this was not an issue affecting them, we [Indonesia], as the chair of ASEAN, immediately picked up the phone, spoke to the two foreign ministers involved … and quickly stabilized the situation.

I’m not saying this is fully resolved because this is a complex issue, but at least when the UN Security Council took up the issue in February and, subsequently, the International Court of Justice, there was already an ASEAN script that they can rally around and support.

How did ASEAN address the South China Sea issue?

This is an issue that for more than eight years has plagued ASEAN with unresolved discussions to produce the famous guidelines that were aimed at helping us in dispute settlement.

But we finally got the guidelines drawn up in July after a great deal of collaborative effort, and now we are moving on to the Code of Conduct (CoC).

Shortly after the adoption of the guidelines, there was still some apprehension, a doubt, because China used the terms “appropriate timing” and “appropriate conditions”. We choose not to be preoccupied by what is meant by “appropriate”, we are just getting on with it.

Having decided to move forward with the process of the CoC, China is now saying it’s ready to join in the initial session.

Even beyond our region, in the Korean peninsula, this time around, when the ARF [Asian Regional Forum] met in Bali, we made possible an indirect meeting between the two Koreas, which will allow an improved chance for a process of dialogue between the two states.

What other issues in the political spectrum is ASEAN focusing on?

Another political area is the SEANWFZ, the nuclear weapon-free zone treaty.

For the past 10 years, we have allowed ourselves not to make progress. Indonesia asked the difficult question: “What is actually happening? Why are we not able to negotiate properly with our nuclear enabled partner states?”

Now the negotiations are complete.

We’re on the verge of securing the accession of the nuclear weapon states to the protocol, which means 600 million people in the ASEAN region will be free from the threat and the use of nuclear weapons against them.

Now that’s a big, big security boost. It’s a huge security boost.

How did ASEAN finally give conformation to Myanmar to chair the grouping in 2014?

We recalled how this time last year we had our elections, and we saw Suu Kyi released. We wanted to ensure that those developments became significant developments, became precursors to more change.

And I think by having the prospect of Myanmar’s chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014 … we have created a conducive environment for Myanmar to continue along the path of reform, the release of more prisoners, dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and the reform of the electoral laws.

Myanmar will be in the spotlight and under scrutiny, both by the international community and more particularly by ASEAN, meaning that they will need to deliver, to ensure they’re where they should be in 2014.

But beyond that, there are other issues in the economic area, with the ASEAN+3 strategic rice reserve agreement, which is very important. The equitable ASEAN concept is very important as well, the ASEAN visa initiative, peace and reconciliation institute and many other initiatives taken by Indonesia.

What encouraged Singapore and the Philippines to change their stance, from rejecting Myanmar’s chairmanship bid to supporting it?

I think it’s just how Myanmar itself has evolved. Plus [positive] things were starting to happen in Myanmar; things are changing. I think many countries want to acknowledge that fact. But Indonesia’s position is … not only about acknowledging [the improvements] but also about making a decision that is not going to be reversed.

This decision is not a referendum on how we feel about Myanmar in 2011, but rather it is our collective expectation of how it should be in 2014.

And now look at the entire political architecture in the region. Suu Kyi is going to run for election in Myanmar. Who would have thought that possible a year ago? When people doubted whether her release was a genuine release or just for show.