(30 Jul – 05 August 2007) ASEAN– Towards a Charter

This week the Philippines hosted both the 40^th Annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting and the 14^th Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The most important outcome of these meetings was the draft of the ASEAN charter that was submitted to the body’s foreign ministers by the High Level Task Force on the Drafting of the ASEAN Charter (HLTF). The Charter is an important step in moving ASEAN, which does not have a constitution, to a more formal, rules-based organization, thus bringing it closer in structure to organizations such as the European Union. Backers of the Charter hope that along with this more formal grounding for the organization that some teeth will be added enabling ASEAN, by vote or other means, a method to enforce its collective will upon member states. An important and controversial section of the Charter is the proposed establishment of a human rights body or commission. Burma has continually voiced objections to the creation of such a body, with Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam also having expressed misgivings. However, negotiations during the ministerial meeting seemed to overcome Burma’s immediate objections along with those of the Indochina nations and it now appears that the Charter will go forward with the human rights component intact.

Singapore, which assumes chairmanship of ASEAN in November has stated that it will pursue the three “C’s”: the Charter, community building, and transnational challenges. In a statement quoted in The New Strait Times on 03 August, Singapore Foreign Minister, George Yeo, summed up how Singapore views ASEAN, “ If you boil down all that we do, ASEAN is about regional security and economic development; meaning jobs and investment.” For Singapore, whose economy is largely based on the dynamics of global trade, regional security is the underpinning for continued investment and growth in the region. If regional growth and security are thus intertwined, then the member countries successful approval of a governing Charter will strengthen ASEAN and have an overall positive impact region wide.

(Comment – All the pre-meeting commentary concerning the replacement of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with her deputy John Negroponte due to U.S. diplomatic priorities in the Middle East seemed to ebb quietly away once the meeting actually started, and the focus turned to the substantive issue of trying to hammer out a Charter. The Charter will move ASEAN forward and better posture it to deal with issues that it is will face in the coming years such as illegal immigration, resource competition, democratization, and economic development. What is important is that ASEAN recognizes that a Charter is needed, and not only a Charter, but also, one that will embody some sort of enforcement mechanism that while guiding  the organization will not be so proscriptive as to be divisive. The Manila Ministerial appears to have reached that objective. Though ASEAN has more than its fair share of critics, it has been and continues to be an important multilateral region forum where substantive issues are regularly addressed formally, and nearly as important, issues are informally addressed in sidebar meetings and bilateral calls between ministers and staffs. It is often here, external to plenary and committee meetings that the rolled-up sleeves hard work of diplomacy is undertaken.) [slr]