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| Southeast Asia |
| Myanmar: Willing to Accept Chairmanship, Listen to ASEAN Friends |
| 2005-07-25 |
| VIENTIANE, July 24 (Bernama) -- Myanmar is willing to accept the Asean chairmanship next year and is prepared to shoulder the responsibilities but it will listen to its Asean friends on the matter, said Thung Tun, the country's delegation leader to the Asean Senior Officials Meeting (SOM)... "We will listen to what our friends have to say. We do not want to pose any problem to our friends and partners in Asean," he told reporters Sunday on the eve of the 38th Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM). Eight years after joining Asean, Myanmar is due to take over the chairmanship next year from Malaysia based on the alphabetical rotation among the grouping's 10 members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. However, Asean's key dialogue partners, the European Union and the United States, are opposed to Myanmar taking over the chairmanship, citing Yangon's human rights record and the continuing house arrest of pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Marty Natalegawa said Sunday "the final decision will be based on consensus of Asean". "However, the first decision on accepting the chairmanship must be made by Myanmar," he added. |
| Posted by:Pappy |