On behalf of my ASEAN Colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to welcome our distinguished Dialogue Partners to this year’s ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences.

I am also pleased to extend a warm welcome to H.E. Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India; H.E. Mr.Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China; and H.E. Mr. Yevgeny Maximovich Primakov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and to the members of their Delegations, who are attending the Post Ministerial Conferences for the first time as full-fledged Dialogue Partners. I am confident that the insights and perspectives that they will bring into our discussions will substantially enrich our dialogue.

The dialogue itself has greatly added to the value of ASEAN’s endeavours as it has, through two decades, facilitated cooperation with some of the most important countries in the world in various areas of common interest.

If this process has served ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners well in the past, it is even more desirable and necessary at this crucial time in history. For almost a decade now, the world has been in the grip of profound and massive changes that have given rise to challenges and contradictory trends in international relations. At the same time, new opportunities have emerged and a deepening sense of interdependence has prompted nations to devise more equitable and mutually beneficial patterns of cooperation—such as we are trying to achieve through our dialogue partnership. Indeed, together we can address, with a larger measure of effectiveness, the acute realities of our time.

One reality that we must all be concerned with is that although there has been relative peace in the Asia Pacific region for quite some time now, the world as yet is not really a peaceful place. Violent conflicts continue to embroil many parts of the globe. Nation-states and international institutions are frantically struggling to adjust to drastically changed and changing political, security and economic circumstances. Weapons of mass destruction still pose enormous potential for catastrophe. ASEAN is concerned that the disarmament agenda is not advancing as expeditiously as it should. Out of this concern and a desire for lasting peace in the region, the ASEAN countries and the other Southeast Asian countries, during a historic summit meeting in Bangkok, signed the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) last December. At the global level, we are also striving to help ensure that the Conference on Disarmament will be able to complete negotiations toward a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) this year.

Focal points of conflict still persist in many parts of the globe. In the Middle East we are deeply concerned that the peace process, which was making steady progress until after the recent Israeli general elections, has now entered a critical phase. We believe that the only way to ensure the continuation of the peace process is for Israel to honour the agreements it has already entered into and to adhere scrupulously to the principles agreed upon at the Madrid Conference, particularly the principle of land-for-peace.

In the former Yugoslavia, the crucial need is now for all signatories to the General Framework for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina to strictly comply with its provisions and to fully cooperate with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and its organs in the discharge of their mandate. ASEAN is committed to support the massive reconstruction and rehabilitation effort in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Here in Southeast Asia, a number of overlapping sovereignty and jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea still have to be resolved. We are nevertheless heartened that the parties involved are willing to resolve their disputes on the basis of international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

As to the Indochinese refugees, there are still a large number of them in first asylum countries, including Indonesia. We therefore urge all parties to the Comprehensive Plan of Action to remain fully committed to the repatriation and resettlement of the refugees and non-refugees as soon as possible.

The global economy continues to be blighted by the imbalances and inequities in the economic relations between developed and developing countries. At the same time, developed and developing nations alike are confronted by the reality of economic globalization.

While globalization has spawned problems to which developing economies are particularly vulnerable, it is nevertheless a force that can be harnessed in order to serve the welfare of all nations. We in ASEAN have therefore endeavoured to integrate our economies with a global economy that is moving inexorably toward an open market system and free trade. Thus ASEAN has acted to ensure the early completion of AFTA which, when realized, will create a wide range of trade and investment opportunities not only for us in ASEAN but for our economic partners as well. AFTA will certainly expand and integrate the already sizable ASEAN market and make the ASEAN countries an ideal production base for manufacturers from within and outside the region.

In the context of APEC, ASEAN economies have committed themselves to work for the achievement of free trade and investment and to intensify development cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. In our endeavour to build bridges of understanding and cooperation with other regional groupings, we have established trade and investment linkages between AFTA and CER of Australia and New Zealand and between AFTA and NAFTA. We have also expanded and intensified our dialogue and cooperative relations with the European countries within the framework of the recently launched Asia-Europe Partnership for Greater Growth. ASEAN intends to continue playing a central role in the evolution of the summit-level Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and in the implementation of the follow-up actions agreed in ASEM.

Another commitment shared by all ASEAN countries is to work for the attainment of the objectives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the guardian of a free, transparent and rule-based regime of international trade. And as we prepare for the First Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Singapore later this year, we should like to emphasize that the discussions in this important meeting should not be trammelled by the introduction of issues extraneous to trade-- for this would not only complicate an already complex WTO agenda, it would also denigrate the developing countries and eventually debilitate the Organization itself.

As we in ASEAN continue to place great importance on development cooperation, we deeply appreciate the continued support of our Dialogue Partners in the implementation of various development projects. In this regard, we look forward to working with Dialogue Partners in a trilateral approach to promote development cooperation with Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, the three remaining Southeast Asian countries which are not yet members of ASEAN but are expected in a few years to join the ASEAN family. We also hope that our Dialogue Partners will remain mindful of the fact that integral to the development endeavours of ASEAN countries is the promotion of trade, investment, transfer of technology and market access for their products.

Through this dialogue process, we hope to be able to build a lasting partnership that will enable us to confront the challenges and to seize the opportunities of a new century. If we continue to base this partnership on genuine interdependence, mutual interest and benefit and equitable sharing of responsibility, I have no doubt that we will also succeed in strengthening peace, stability and prosperity not only in this region but also in the world at large.

Nor have I any doubt that, in the constructive spirit that this dialogue is known for, we will have another productive round of deliberations today and tomorrow.