ASEAN shows the way to SCO
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - The
foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
have met in the capital of Tajikistan for the last time before the
SCO summit in August, to approve the agenda.
The SCO is a regional organization comprising Russia, China,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. India, Iran,
Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese
colleague, Yang Jiechi, have come to Dushanbe from Singapore, where
they attended a security forum held by ASEAN. Before that, they
held bilateral talks in Beijing.
Flying almost parallel courses to Dushanbe is not a coincidence.
Major Asian powers, Russia and China are very active in Southeast
and Central Asia and are full members of ASEAN and the SCO, a
Central Asian organization similar to ASEAN.
In Singapore, the foreign ministers concluded an interesting
diplomatic project, which can and should be used at the SCO as a
model and as a precedent.
The United States and the European Union accused one of the
ASEAN member states, Myanmar (formerly Burma), of failure to
prevent a humanitarian catastrophe after Cyclone Nargis hit the
south and east of the country on May 2 and 3, 2008, resulting in
nearly 138,000 people dead or missing.
One of the vulnerable elements in SCO history is the killing of
unarmed protesters by the Uzbek government in Andijan in May
2005.
There could be other similar incidents in the member states of
both organizations, but is this enough for the Western public to
demonize them?
Myanmar knows that blows against one's reputation can be
followed by airstrikes, like in Yugoslavia in 1999 or a softer but
no less dramatic attack as in Indonesia, when it lost part of its
territory in 1999, now called East Timor.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has so far
refused to admit East Timor. The organization does not like the
Myanmar military regime either, but it likes foreign interference
in regional affairs even less. This is why Myanmar's partners and
neighbors resolved to uncover the truth.
Last May, the West launched a verbal attack at Myanmar, accusing
the regime of inability to help hundreds of thousands of cyclone
victims and refusal to accept Western humanitarian aid, inferring
that "humanitarian intervention" was needed in this situation.
This is when the government of Myanmar, ASEAN and the UN
released the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, which
provides the first comprehensive picture and objective analysis of
the devastating impact of the cyclone on the Myanmar people. The
report includes facts and figures, while media attacks on Myanmar
are nothing but empty words.
The PONJA report does not mention hunger or health epidemics,
which the media alleges have begun and which they blame on the
Myanmar government.
The weeklong ministerial meeting in Singapore began with
extensive discussions of Cyclone Nargis and the PONJA report. While
ASEAN analysts were preparing the report, diplomats tried to
convince Myanmar leaders to stop the hysterics and accept foreign
aid. Illogically, the regime ordered troops to protect the country
from U.S. warships carrying humanitarian aid.
Singapore, which at present holds the rotating presidency of
ASEAN, organized the diplomatic action. Foreign Minister George Yeo
has given significant interviews before the report's publication,
saying that ASEAN decided to "separate politics from humanitarian
efforts and concentrate on helping the people first."
Assistance to Myanmar, which is "part of the family," he said,
"lays the groundwork" for change there, including the 2010
elections. ASEAN is doing its best to encourage such change.
Nobody can accuse Singapore of anti-Western paranoia. "We must
always keep our doors open to the Americans, to the Europeans, to
everybody, this is an open house," George Yeo said, meaning that
the action to help Myanmar was not anti-American but pro-ASEAN.
The SCO has a similar ideology. The point at issue is not about
allowing foreigners into Central or Southeast Asia; what matters is
who calls the tune: regional, local or foreign politicians.
The ASEAN ministerial meeting in Singapore also addressed the
territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which is another
useful example for the SCO, as Tajikistan again quarreled with
Uzbekistan shortly before the meeting in Dushanbe.
There are no regional associations where all member states love
each other without distinction. On the contrary, the more there are
neighbors, the more frequently they argue. But neighbors also have
common interests, and their organizations should know how to
protect these interests.
The SCO should be grateful to Singapore for providing
this example.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080728/115078932.html