Yudhoyono boasts RI’s success in chairing ASEAN

Mustaqim Adamrah,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Tue, 08/09/2011

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono highlighted the achievements that ASEAN had made so far this year while Indonesia is acting as the current chair of the regional grouping.

The idea of an East Asia Summit (EAS), for example, as a building block of regional architecture was still being developed, he said.

“Today, it is already a strong and increasingly mature forum — still ASEAN-led — and made even stronger by the participation of the Russian Federation and the United States of America,” he told the audience, which included ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, ambassadors, ASEAN permanent representatives and other diplomats on Monday in commemoration of ASEAN’s 44th anniversary at the ASEAN Secretariat.

Under Indonesia’s chairmanship, he said, ASEAN set out to “consolidate ASEAN community building” and emphasized the importance of ASEAN’s contribution to the “global community of nations”.

“Efforts to settle the Thai-Cambodian border dispute are in accordance with principles enshrined in the TAC. And because of these efforts, the two countries have given their trust to ASEAN,” Yudhoyono said.

The border conflict between the two ASEAN countries was triggered by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 1962 ruling on an ancient temple, Preah Vihear, which it said is part of Cambodia’s territory. However, the ICJ failed to define the area surrounding the temple.

Repeated skirmishes have occurred in Thai-Cambodia border areas, not only in the vicinity of the Preah Vihear temple, but also of two other ancient temples — Ta Moan and Ta Krabey — claiming at least 23 lives on both sides since early this year.

Cambodia tried to internationalize the issue by bringing the dispute to the United Nations Security Council in February, but the world organization entrusted ASEAN to settle it.

On a request made by Cambodia for the ICJ to reinterpret its 1962 ruling, the ICJ said in its verdict last month that it ordered both disputing parties to cooperate with ASEAN.

“We have earned the recognition of the international community, as a regional grouping capable of effectively addressing our own security problems,” Yudhoyono said.

He said ASEAN also made a breakthrough under Indonesia’s chairmanship by concluding the guidelines for the implementation of the Declaration of Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

“This sent a powerful signal to the international community, that the future of the South China Sea is manageable and hopefully will lead to greater confidence,” he said.