Thai premier calls for action-based ASEAN at foreign ministers' meet

Phuket, Thailand - A meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) kicked off Monday on Phuket Island with a call to turn the grouping into a more action-based one. 'The ASEAN community must be a community of action,' Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his opening speech to the gathering of ASEAN foreign ministers. 'We need to show the world that ASEAN is ready to meet any challenge,' he said. From Monday through Thursday, foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN states and their 15 main dialogue partners meet in Phuket, 600 kilometres south of Bangkok, to discuss a variety of security and social challenges to the region. The 42nd ASEAN foreign ministers meeting is expected to endorse the terms of reference for an ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights which will be launched at the upcoming 15th ASEAN Summit in October, also to be held in Phuket. ASEAN, which includes the pariah state Myanmar, has had a poor past record in enforcing human rights protection in its region and the planned commission has already been labelled a 'toothless tiger.' The commission will have a very weak mandate, limited at first to promoting the concept of human rights and engaging with civil society, but will be subject to amendments every five years. 'It is a legal document that would provide an evolutionary framework for further measures for promotion and protection of human rights,' Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Sunday. The foreign ministers will also discuss a host of regional challenges including the economic crisis, global warming and the new threat of the H1N1 swine-flu virus. On Tuesday the ministers are to meet with their Asian dialogue partners from China, Japan and South Korea. Wednesday there will be more bilateral talks with the members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia's main security event. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia (TAC), making the US one of the last ASEAN allies to do so. The European Union is expected to join TAC at the October summit. The ARF is to meet Thursday to discuss regional security threats such as North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and Myanmar's ongoing political stalemate. ARF includes the 10 ASEAN members as well as Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, the US and the EU, with Papua New Guinea and East Timor as observers. The North Korean foreign minister is not expected to attend the meeting.