Experts and Eminent Persons (EEP) of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) kicked off a meeting here Monday to outline a work plan on the mechanism of preventive diplomacy toward a more peaceful region.

During the two-day meeting opened by Deputy Foreign Minister Triyono Wibowo, 60 experts from 24 countries discussed implementation of preventive diplomacy through cooperation between Asia-Pacific countries on security issues.

Preventive diplomacy becomes main issue in ARF since the forum is now moving forward from confidence-building measures to preventive diplomacy, Triyono said.

“ARF has developed well enough to move into a phase in which it practices preventive diplomacy without abandoning the pursuit of confidence-building measures,” he said.

“To be fully mature, this forum will eventually go into a third phase: the development of conflict resolution mechanism by carrying out conflict resolution activities, while still engaging in confidence-building and preventive diplomacy.”

At this stage, he went on, it is necessary for ARF to establish an institutional framework and mechanism to maintain peace, stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

The ongoing meeting, co-hosted by Indonesia and New Zealand, is held to follow up the decision of the 16th Ministerial Meeting of the ARF last July, during which the ministers called on EEP members to submit their ideas on feasible preventive diplomacy measures.

The EEP meeting is expected to come up with outlined recommendations on the mechanism of preventive diplomacy.

In the EEP group, Indonesia is represented by Jusuf Wanandi, chairman of Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Indonesia; Rizal Sukma, executive director Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and Ambassador Wiryono [Sastrohandoyo].

Representatives from Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were absent in the meeting.

Director of intra-regional cooperation for Asia Pacific and Africa, Ibnu Hadi, said ARF countries had already engaged in cooperation, especially on maritime security and counter-terrorism issues, in an effort to accelerate the transition from confidence-building measures to preventive diplomacy.

ARF members are divided over the implementation on preventive diplomacy, with some of them are more comfortable to use the approach to address non-traditional security issues, while others think that it should also be used to address traditional ones.

Indonesian EEP representative Rizal Sukma said ARF members have gradually changed their preference over traditional and non-traditional security issues, as evident in the ARF Vision Statement resulted during the ministerial meeting in July.

“Both traditional and non-traditional issues can spark inter-state conflict, and ARF has recognized its role to prevent this conflict by strengthening cooperation in the two issues.”

He said some countries preferred cooperation on non-traditional issues by building cooperation on disaster relief and addressing transnational crimes, because the issues are less sensitive than the traditional ones, such as border disputes. 

Rizal suggested ARF members must prioritize addressing traditional security issues since they are more urgent and more potential to spark conflict.

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