By Xinhua,
Jakarta : The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed its welcome to the progress made by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on dismantling its nuclear facilities.
“DPRK has been a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) since2000. We certainly hope that this positive development will relax tension and anxiety in our region,” said Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan in a statement issued here Tuesday by the ASEAN Secretariat.
ARF has 27 members from among the ASEAN Member States and their dialogue partners, including China, Russia, the United States, along with France and UK (via the European Union).
“A possibility of peaceful cooperation between traditional rivals in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia opens up further with this relax in tension,” said the former Thai Foreign Minister.
The issue of DPRK’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) is making progress. The Southeast Asian High Contracting Parties to the TAC, which comprises all ten ASEAN Member States, have already given their consent to the accession of the DPRK to the TAC. The DPRK is expected to be the 15th state outside of Southeast Asia to accede to the TAC.
The ASEAN Secretary-General also explained that mutual confidence and increasing trust among member states of ARF could widen and deepen security and economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region.
He said that all members of the Six-Party Talks on the Korean Peninsula proliferation issue are full and active members of ARF. It is only logical, he said, that they would work together to strengthen the Forum.
Aside from DPRK and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States are members of the ad-hoc framework for security discussion in Northeast Asia.