Burma agrees to skip ASEAN chairmanship
Military-ruled Burma agreed today to forgo its scheduled chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year to avoid a damaging Western boycott of the group’s meetings, diplomats said.
The US and European Union had demanded that Burma either move toward democracy and release pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi or forfeit its turn at the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN in late 2006.
Foreign ministers from Burma and the other ASEAN countries agreed during their retreat today in the Laotian capital to defer Burma’s chairmanship, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
Another south-east Asian diplomat also said that Burma had agreed to defer the alphabetically-rotated post.
The diplomat said next-in-line Philippines would be ready to take over.
The issue came to a head in Laos this week during the group’s annual ministerial meeting that runs through until Friday, followed by the ASEAN Regional Forum – a security dialogue with 14 other governments with interests in the region, such as the US, EU, Russia and China.
