FOREIGN ministers from 20 countries and the European Union ended day long Asian security talks yesterday with some tough talk on Burma and intensive diplomacy over nuclear disarmament issues.
Russia and the United States announced after meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Jakarta that they had agreed to support a compromise nuclear test ban treaty and hoped it could be quickly approved in Geneva next week. But the treaty cannot come into force until signed by 61 countries, including India which is still refusing to do so.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, called for greater EU ASEAN co-operation in the fight against drugs. (ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.)
He reiterated the EU's concern about the state of human rights in Burma and called on the country's military government "to bring about national reconciliation and democratic reform and to implement respect for human rights without delay".
Mr Spring said that the EU was concerned "at the lack of a full and satisfactory explanation" of the circumstances surrounding the recent death of the Nordic countries' honorary consul, Mr James Nichols.
He also warned that the EU was anxious about the possibility that an internal crisis in North Korea might lead the military establishment there to some unpredictable and desperate move.
The Burmese Foreign Minister, Mr Ohn Gyaw, assured the conference that the ruling military junta in Burma would step down after overseeing the drafting of a new constitution. This would set up a presidential form of government with a bicameral legislature.
The meeting urged China and Russia to ask North Korea to join four party peace talks with South Korea.
Mr Spring's speech did not make any direct reference to the situation in East Timor, although his views are well known to his Indonesian hosts and will have come up in the bilateral meetings he is holding with all the ASEAN countries.
He paid tribute, however, to the success of the regional forum in providing a vehicle for debates about the security of the region.
The forum agreed to admit India and Burma as new members this year. The forum includes the seven ASEAN countries, the US, Russia, Japan, the EU, China, Canada. South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Laos, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.
