Downer: We are Australians

VIENTIANE: Having successfully wooed Asean’s support for it to join the inaugural East Asia Summit (EAS), Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was drawn into yet another debate over his country’s “identity.” 

“Am I an East Asian? I am an Australian. I think questions about who we are, are not questions that worry us. 

“We know we are Australians and we are confident of the good things that we stand for,” he said when asked whether Australia considered itself part of the East Asian region. 

Speaking at a press conference after the Asean Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) here yesterday, Downer reiterated Australia’s commitment to make the EAS a success. 

“Australia can bring a lot to the table as a dynamic and successful country. We have been a major contributor to the region economically and in terms of security, as demonstrated at the end of last year when we responded to our regional neighbours who were hit by the tsunami,” he added. 

After months of refusing to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), which Asean made conditional for an invitation to the EAS, Australia announced its decision to sign a declaration of intent at the Asean meeting here.  

This will be followed with the signing of the TAC in Kuala Lumpur before the EAS. 

During the press conference attended by Asean Foreign Ministers and its 10 dialogue partners, US deputy secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who represented US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, was asked on Myanmar’s decision not to take up the Asean chairmanship next year. 

Zoellick said that while he was pleased with the outcome, the United States believed the situation in Myanmar had deteriorated. 

“I attended the Asean PMC in the early 1990s where I spoke about (Myanmar's pro-democratic leader) Aung Sang Suu Kyi, how I thought about the terrible pain that she would be in, held in confinement. And the situation remains. 

“Countries that have political problems like this actually become a problem for the rest of us. It creates a cancer in society and it has the danger of spreading,” he said, as Myanmar Foreign Minister Ngan Win sat grim-faced in front of him.