Barrister Harun ur Rashid
On 1 January 2014, Myanmar has assumed Chairmanship of ASEAN for the first time. Brunei handed over the chair to Myanmar. Myanmar’s theme for its Chairmanship of ASEAN for 2014 is “Moving Forward in Unity, to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community.” According to the ASEAN Charter, the Chairmanship of ASEAN is rotated annually among Member States.
Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997 and was to take the ASEAN chairmanship in 2006. But it was passed over amid international pressure because of its poor human rights record. There were fears that countries would boycott meetings there, as pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest.
The ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original member countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Later Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.
ASEAN has been regarded as one of the most stable regional groupings in the developing world. With a population of around 600 million, Southeast Asia is emerging politically, economically and strategically, attracting external powers.
ASEAN Summit is an annual meeting held by the member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in relation to economic, and cultural development of Southeast Asian countries.
Furthermore the United States and the European Union had imposed economic and political sanctions. All that is now history. Suu Kyi has become a member of parliament and her National League of Democracy is preparing to contest elections in 2015. Also, most of the sanctions have been lifted.
In a speech late October, President Thein Sein of Myanmar reportedly said his government’s recent reforms were a model for the region. “Myanmar’s current political, economic and administrative reforms are a good example to other ASEAN countries,” he said, adding that Myanmar would strive to ensure that the country’s year-long tenure as head of the regional bloc is a success.
The task ahead
During the year Myanmar will have to navigate three major priorities: (a) accelerating ASEAN economic integration, (b) reducing tension in the South China Sea with China (c) and preparing the agenda for the future of ASEAN.
A series of meetings (about 300) including summit, ministerial meetings and senior officials meetings with take in its capital Nay Pyi Taw and in other cities, Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan. Myanmar recently opened the International Convention Centre for the summit and other meetings in its capital.
According to schedule, the 62nd meeting of the ASEAN Co-ordination Committee on Investment was held on 10-11th January. ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM Retreat), the first regional meeting of its kind hosted by Myanmar, concluded on 18th January in Bagan, Mandalay region.
During the retreat chaired by Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin, ASEAN foreign ministers discussed the priorities of ASEAN in 2014 which include ASEAN’s efforts to speed up community building and ASEAN integration and to move forward to the realization of master plan for ASEAN Community.
The ASEAN ministers also touched on developing ASEAN Vision for post 2015 ASEAN Community as guided by ASEAN leaders’ statement at the 23rd ASEAN Summit and exploring ways to strengthening ASEAN’s external relations. The ministers also discussed ways to further contribute to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and beyond.
They argue that this has been further compounded by the internal challenges the country faces. The political narrative of Myanmar since mid-2012 has been dominated by ethnic conflicts and religious violence in which many have been killed and hundreds displaced most of them Muslims. These problems figure high on the ASEAN agenda due to the due to their repercussions on neighbouring countries and ASEAN as a whole.
Opportunity for Myanmar
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sees the ASEAN chairmanship is a “good opportunity” for Myanmar to build on its democratic transition and socio-economic progress. “We all agree and we are also concerned that there are still many more challenges, particularly communal violence, which they have been experiencing in Rakhine state involving Rohingya minority groups,” he says.
Myanmar will hold three separate meetings of ASEAN. First is the ASEAN Summit with 3 dialogue partners, second Asean Regional Forum with 27 states and East Asia Summit with 18 states.
The annual meetings of ASEAN hold with other count known as the ASEAN dialogue partners. ASEAN +3 adds China, Japan and South Korea.
In 1994, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established to intensify its external dialogues in political and security matters as a means of building cooperative ties with States in the Asia-Pacific region. The ARF was designed to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern and make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region.
The meeting of ARF will be held consisting of 27 States – Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, and Vietnam.
Myanmar will also hold an East Asia Summit (EAS) bringing together leaders from 18 nations during the year. The EAS draws leaders including ten ASEAN members and eight dialogue partners namely China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, US and Russia.
Power rivalries
ASEAN has become a region where great power rivalries and competition for influence are being played out. Among these external powers, the US and China are the two most important countries. Observers say the country is likely to face difficulty in steering a grouping as significant as the ASEAN in a rapidly changing strategic environment in the region where the US, China, Japan and the EU are intensifying their re-balancing efforts.
Since its establishment in 2005, the EAS was intended to be ASEAN-led nations, and has been linked to ASEAN Summits. An important issue ASEAN faces in the recent development of the EAS is whether it can maintain its “centrality” in the grouping. Normally, the “center” is more powerful than the “periphery”, but in this case the US and China (peripheries) are far stronger than ASEAN (center). It is reported that by 2028 China will overtake US as the world’s largest economy with GDP $33.51 trillion compared with $32.41 trillion of the US.
Observers suggest ASEAN’s chairmanship also should have the wits to think about providing more opportunities for non-ASEAN members to utilize the EAS. While maintaining its flexibility, at least for the short-to-medium term, ASEAN should initiate the construction of EAS institutions, such as a secretariat, which is separate from, but located in ASEAN countries. Non-ASEAN members also should become co-chairs of the EAS concurrently with the ASEAN chair, to put them into a more precise scheme.
Myanmar would be closely watched how it exercises its foreign policy, given the fact that strategic interests of several powers converge in the country and there could be attempts to influence the chair, and how it handles the ASEAN agenda, especially in the context of territorial disputes of some ASEAN members with China. For instance, in 2012, Cambodia was accused of removing, at the behest of Beijing, a reference to the South China Sea in an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting communique.
For Bangladesh, Myanmar is strategically important, given its sharing borders, its role in resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis (especially hundreds and thousands remain in Bangladesh) and as an important partner in regional and sub-regional cooperation such as BIMSTEC and the proposed BCIM corridor project.
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The writer is former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
Source: Weekly Holiday
