Thursday, April 09, 2009

Crisis, North Korea to top ASEAN talks

April 9, 2009
Adam Gartrell
AAP

The global financial crisis and North Korea's recent rocket launch will dominate Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's talks with Asian leaders in Thailand at the weekend.

But Rudd is also likely to use the East Asia Summit as another opportunity to talk up his ambitious plan to create an EU-style Asia Pacific Community (APC).

The prime minister will travel to the Thai resort town of Pattaya on Saturday, ahead of Sunday's summit, a meeting of leaders from the 10 ASEAN nations, plus Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea and India.

The leaders will issue a joint statement on the region's response to the financial crisis and will receive briefings from the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank.

The leaders will also discuss the regional security threat posed by North Korea's provocative long-range rocket launch, trade, food and energy security, and disaster relief cooperation.

Australian National University ASEAN expert Professor Hal Hill says Mr Rudd will use any bilateral meetings with leaders to push his "bold" APC plan.

"I think it's still at the stage where people are being sounded out - are they interested or not?" Hill said.

"It's very early days, but my understanding is that most of the countries that have been consulted are at least listening, and they're interested."

But Rudd should avoid being too pushy because Australia was still the "new kid on the block" in regional talks, Hill said.

"Australia's got to play its hand fairly carefully and not be seen to be as a new member trying to throw its weight around," he said.

The summit is expected to go ahead, though it's likely to be targeted by protesters who want to force Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from power.

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place late last year, but was postponed after political unrest in the Thai capital Bangkok.

The 10 members of ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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