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ASEAN entertains calls to 'take a step back' on Myanmar+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)UBUD, Indonesia, April 20_(Kyodo) _ ASEAN foreign ministers ended a two-day meeting Thursday in Bali having failed to reach consensus on what to do about troubled member Myanmar, with some ministers suggesting ASEAN "take a step back" and give Myanmar's junta "more space" to work on national reconciliation. "We had a good discussion last night, a very frank and heartfelt discussion," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo told reporters. "We did not take any decision at this meeting." He was referring to Wednesday night's working dinner in which the political impasse in Myanmar was discussed at length. The ministers, meeting in the Bali hill town of Ubud, also held a half-day of talks Thursday on various other ASEAN issues. Yeo said that among the ASEAN foreign ministers, some "felt that we should take a step back and give Myanmar more space to achieve its internal reconciliation." He said there were also worries voiced that ASEAN involvement in the Myanmar issue leads to the 10-member grouping becoming, in some member countries, "politicized within their domestic politics. "Others felt that we should engage Myanmar and help it move forward," Yeo said. Some ASEAN ministers, he said, "expressed our concerns and our hope to see more progress to the Myanmar foreign minister." "We reiterated our position on the importance of Myanmar staying on the road map toward democracy and we called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi," he said, referring to the pro-democracy icon who has long been held under house arrest, most recently since 2003. At the dinner, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar gave his fellow ASEAN ministers a briefing about his March 23 visit to Myanmar as an ASEAN envoy and lamented being unable to meet some people he wanted to meet, Yeo said, alluding partly to Suu Kyi. "It was not quite satisfactory. But he did tell us he saw some positive developments in the country, which he hopes Myanmar government will do a better job presenting to the world," he said. Asked if ASEAN plans to make further efforts to gauge the progress of promised political reforms in Myanmar, he said that individually, ASEAN members could nudge Myanmar toward reforms. As an example, he cited Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Yangon on March 1 this year. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. |