Asean foreign ministers start annual meetings in Jakarta; Timor-Leste joins for the first time

Foreign ministers from the region attend the first day of the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta, on July 11. - MFA

JAKARTA (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met his Asean counterparts in Jakarta on Tuesday (July 11), the first day of a week-long series of meetings that the bloc is staging.

He met the foreign ministers of Malaysia and Timor-Leste after arriving in the Indonesian capital on Monday night to attend the 56th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and related meetings.

For the first time, the AMM was attended by Timor-Leste, which in 2022 was granted observer status in the bloc.

“My counterparts and I were very pleased to welcome Timor-Leste Foreign Minister Bendito dos Santos Freitas to his first Asean meeting as observer,” said Dr Balakrishnan in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening.

Touching on discussions held on Tuesday, Dr Balakrishnan stressed that Asean has immense potential for future growth.

“We had fruitful discussions on the green and digital economies, including working towards establishing an Asean Power Grid,” he said.

“We expressed our support for the Asean Outlook in the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) as a basis for Asean to engage our external partners and give them a stake in our region’s continued peace and prosperity.”

The AOIP, an initiative led by Indonesia that was signed in 2019 by Asean leaders at the 34th Asean Summit, lays out the bloc’s common position on regional cooperation, security and prosperity, as well as its stance on not taking sides with any major powers competing for influence in the region.

The ministers on Tuesday also attended a meeting of the South-east Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone commission. Asean states signed a treaty on such a zone in 1995 to keep the region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

During the meeting, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stressed that the region must be one that is free of nuclear weapons.

“The maintenance of peace and stability in the region is our priority. It is our foundation to turn the region into the Epicentrum of Growth,” she said, highlighting the theme of Indonesia’s current chairmanship of Asean.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Dr Balakrishnan met Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir. “We discussed ways to deepen the mutually beneficial bilateral partnership ahead of the Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat later this year,” Dr Balakrishnan said.

He also met Freitas and reaffirmed the close cooperation between Singapore and Timor-Leste.

“Pleased that the Singapore-Timor-Leste Asean Readiness Support (Stars) package, which Singapore launched in December 2022, has benefited Timor-Leste officials,” said Dr Balakrishnan.

The package aims to train hundreds of Timor-Leste officials in support of the country’s bid for full Asean membership, and Singapore has conducted courses for about 800 officials from Timor-Leste.

During the AMM and related meetings that will run until Friday, the bloc’s ministers will discuss how the region can work together to build its community and reaffirm Asean centrality and unity amid the evolving regional architecture.

Asean centrality refers to the bloc being in the driver’s seat and shaping key decisions affecting South-east Asia, instead of having the region’s fortunes determined by external parties.

A joint communique agreed upon by all Asean members is traditionally released after the AMM.

Asean foreign ministers will also meet their counterparts from 11 key dialogue partners this week – Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, the European Union, Britain and the United States.

The Asean ministers will also attend large-group meetings with their partners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are among the foreign leaders expected to be in Jakarta.

On Tuesday, the government in Beijing said that Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will skip the meetings in Jakarta due to his “physical condition”, and the country’s top diplomat Wang Yi will attend the meetings instead.