News and Analysis, 12th Annual ASEAN Summit, 14 January 2007

ASEAN:  The Philippines as Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hosted the 12^th Annual Summit in Cebu, from 10-14 January. Although three bombs exploded in the Southern Philippines killing 7 and injuring approximately 30 persons on the first day of the summit, there was no impact on the summit itself or significant security problems in the vicinity of Cebu. Western governments including Australia had issued warnings that Islamic militants were attempting to target the summit, or at least conduct attacks in the vicinity of Cebu designed to embarrass the Philippine government; however, this threat never materialized and the summit was carried out successfully. During the summit, there were several notable achievements: the signing of an ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism (CT), a Declaration on the Acceleration of the Establishment of an ASEAN Community by 2015, the Cebu Declaration on the Blueprint of the ASEAN Charter, France and East Timor signing the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, and a Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

From a security perspective the CT convention is the most important and contains sections relating to the following: early warning through information sharing, prevention and suppression of terrorist financing, building CT capacity by training and technical cooperation, promoting public awareness, establishing intra-faith and inter-faith dialog, developing a regional CT database, strengthening the capability and readiness to react to incidents involving chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear incidents, cyber-terrorism, and jurisdiction and extradition issues. (Comment – to view the full text of the CT convention see Southeast Asia - Security Information Resource )

The Cebu Declaration on the Blueprint of the ASEAN Charter endorses a report from the Eminent Persons Group to move ASEAN in a direction that will develop a legal framework that will move ASEAN along lines more similar to that of the European Union, working to better integrate the region as a whole. (Comment – to view the full text of the blueprint see Southeast Asia - Security Information Resource )

The U.S. lobbied hard before the summit in attempt to garner support for its tough Burma policy, which was being simultaneously tested in New York within the UN Security Council. However, the desired level of support was not forthcoming from ASEAN member countries, and while there were muted comments directed at Burma to make progress on a democratic roadmap and to release political prisoners, the type of support the U.S. was in search of was absent. 

(Comment – ASEAN clearly sees itself as the mechanism to address the myriad of transnational issues facing the region from trade, to labor, to terrorism, and it is beginning to come to the realization that if it is going to tackle these difficult topics, there must be a framework in place that formalizes its processes and procedures and that it needs to develop the tools necessary to enforce future multilateral policies and agreements. The weakness of ASEAN has always been as an organization it relies on consensus from all parties before moving forward, and if consensus cannot be achieved, sensitive issues are shelved or put into committee for further study where they languish without resolution. While this has reduced conflict and friction between member countries, it has handicapped ASEAN's ability to make decisions and to take concrete actions. The recently concluded 12^th Summit appears to be a step in the direction to forge a more meaningful and relevant association.) [slr]