South China Sea, NoKor’s missile testing hot issues at ASEAN security forum

Washington is seeking talks on how North Korea can be suspended from Asia's biggest security forum as part of a broader effort to isolate Pyongyang diplomatically and force it to end its missile tests and abandon its nuclear weapons program. But it will not be easy. Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that North Korea's actions have violated the conflict-prevention aims of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which groups the United States and North Korea with 25 other countries.

What the US government has been "sort of looking at is having a serious discussion of what it would take

for a member to be suspended from this organization that is dedicated to conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy," Thornton added.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the ARF does not have expulsion provision like Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union where a country can exit.

Article 50 of the Treaty on EU is a part of EU law that sets out the process by which member states may withdraw from the Union. The article was used for the first and so far only time by the United Kingdom on March 29, 2017.

"If North Korea wants to exit I guess there are no hard and fast rules for it to be prevented from exiting," DFA Spokesperson Rob Bolivar pointed out during a briefing Thursday in Pasay City. "But as a forum, there are no rules for us to determine if this participating country should exit the forum. It’s only when it is inviting countries to join the forum that we have certain criteria."

Too late The Philippines is hosting the annual ministerial meeting on Monday which will be attended by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.

The 10 ASEAN foreign ministers will first hold talks among themselves on Friday and Saturday, during which the region's other major flashpoint issue – rival claims in the South China Sea and China's growing presence there – will be a top agenda item.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

While it may be too late for Pyongyang to be barred from the ARF meeting this year, Thornton said Washington would continue to “push the organization to think about what kinds of suspension measures or requirements or stipulations might be included in the future.”

ARF is an important forum for security dialogue in Asia established in 1994. It draws together 27 members which have a bearing on the security of the Asia Pacific region.

The forum provides a setting where members can discuss current regional security issues and develop cooperative measures to enhance peace and security in the region.

Candid venue According to Bolivar, aside from the United Nations, the ARF is the only venue where there is a round table discussion among 27 countries that includes North Korea as well as South Korea, Japan, China, the US, Russia, the European Union and ASEAN member countries.

"It is the only venue thus far that we have to promote candid and free-flow dialogue, and to actually express our concerns to North Korea in a face-toface manner, shying away from what Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano calls microphone diplomacy through press releases," he noted. "It provides a very candid venue for all the parties to express concerns to North Korea and to try to find cooperative ways of addressing the issue," he added.

Bolivar stressed that ASEAN is very much concerned about the developments in the Korean peninsula. In fact, the ASEAN foreign ministers issued a very strong statement against the ballistic missile and Missile material testing of North Korea in its meeting last April.

"And of course, all of us surrounding the whole region are very much concerned about the potential for escalation of this issue," he said.

Bolivar further pointed out that ARF is a forum for dialogue where all the parties to the Korean peninsula issue are present.

"There is an opportunity for them to exchange views on issues of concerns and definitely I believe because of the parties present at the table that the Korean peninsula issue will definitely be discussed," he said. "Hopefully, aside from expressions of concern there might be an opportunity during that dialogue to try to find some sort of grounds for proceeding to more productive dialogue."

Illegal drugs Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa expressed hopes that the ASEAN would take a united stand against illegal drugs.

“They are our neighbors, it is possible that those drugs which did not enter in the country may be diverted to them,” said Dela Rosa.

Earlier, Commissioner General Budi Waseso, head of Indonesia's antinarcotics agency said there is evidence of syndicates re-directing shipments of methamphetamine, known as "shabu" in Southeast Asia, towards Indonesia because of the crackdown in the Philippines.

“They are inclined as far as I see it. Their president is inclined to copy what we are doing, their chief of police, has also an inclination to also do that,” he said.

“I know they will not find it very difficult because they are very stiff in their anti-drugs laws,” said Dela Rosa.

New dialogue partner

After conferment of the status as ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner last year, Switzerland will have a tripartite meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh this week.

"Actually, it’s for the first year of Switzerland will be joining the ASEAN as sectoral dialogue partner," Swiss Ambassador Andrea Reichlin said during the 726th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation held recently in Makati City.

"We will discuss our relationship with ASEAN because we are a new member, so that is for us to get into the ASEAN family," he said.

With regards to the Swiss-Philippine relationship, Ambassador Reichlin pointed out the importance of the entry into force of the European Free Trade Association.

The EFTA States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, signed a free trade agreement with the Philippines in Bern, Switzerland, on April 28, 2016.

As a broad-based agreement, the FTA covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, competition, the protection of intellectual property rights, government procurement, and trade and sustainable development. In the area of trade in goods, EFTA abolishes all customs duties on industrial products as of the entry into force of the Agreement, whereas the Philippines will gradually lower or abolish its duties on the vast majority of such products. (With reports from Aaron B. Recuenco, AFP, and AP)