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Your Excellency Mr. Somsavat Lengsavad,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Lao People's Democratic Republic,
Your Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Dr. Vishakha Desai, President of the Asia Society,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am particularly delighted to welcome the Asia
Society to Thailand this year. Just last fall I had the honor
to speak at the Asia Society in the United States, both in
Washington D.C., on "Two Years of US-Thai Relations" and,
later the same week, in New York on "the Path Forward for
Thailand in the Fast-Changing Global Economy." So I am triple
delighted to meet members of the Asia Society again today
for the third time in 12 months. I hope you don't find me
monopolizing all your events.
There is no doubt that the Asia Society has
always been a leader in promulgating debate on the most timely
and relevant issues in Asia and in world affairs. Your conference
this year is no exception. Your topic, "Southeast Asia Rising,"
opens a range of important questions. We heard my Prime Minister
laying a foundation for our discussion last night and my successor
in the Foreign Ministry will build on it later on.
For my part, I would like to shift your attention
to the links between the Rise of Southeast Asia and the broader
Rise of Asia in international society.
The rise of Southeast Asia is changing Asia
- as the rise of Asia is changing the world. The rise of Southeast
Asia only has to be looked at in the context of the rise of
Asia. The rise of Asia must be seen in the global perspective.
The changes in Southeast Asia must benefit Asia and the changes
in Asia must benefit the world. Therefore it is our obligation
to ensure that these changes are peaceful, that they spread
prosperity, and that they contribute to global respect for
our common environment and for the values of our common humanity.
We in Asia must remain open to one another,
respecting the diversity of our paths forward, and cooperating
with one another as we build our common future. The picture
of Asia we look at today is characterized by emerging networks
of regional and sub-regional arrangements which serve as building
blocks for a prosperous Asian Community. The picture of Asia
today is a mark of change in the world political landscape
that will play a constructive role in promoting global cooperation
and reinforce the foundations of multilateralism.
Distinguished participants,
Be it because of the size of its land, the size
of its population, its intriguing history, culture, and diversity,
or the sheer size of its economy, any changes that take place
in this major geographical part of the world, Asia never fail
to attract the world attention. The last two decades, in particular,
have drawn all eyes of the world to focus on what had been
happening in Asia, and even more so on what had been happening
in Southeast Asia.
The late 80's and the early 90's were the decade
of economic phenomenon of Southeast Asia. We all heard the
mention of the economic tigers of Southeast Asia. The world
watched their role in the changing Asia with extreme anxiety.
Then just as the world blinked, the roaring tigers of Asia
were suddenly restrained following the collapse of the Asian
economy in 1997. It would have been hard for Asia to recover,
many thought. Dashed was the hope of the 21st rising century
of Asia. It would have taken a few decades for Asia to rise
back, we heard many commentators suggested. Those were the
world's anticipation as it watched Asia and Southeast Asia
going down.
But what many may have failed to notice is the
resilience and the ability to recover and bounce back of Asia,
which is inherent in this continent. It is even inherent in
its very name of Asia. Albeit some disagreement, it is believed
that the name Asia most probably comes from a word in the
ancient Sumerian civilization. The root word is "asu" meaning
the light in the sky or an upward movement. The Greek were
the first to make that reference to this land referring to
the East or the direction from which the sun rises.
No doubt, the rise of Asia just comes naturally.
Distinguished participants,
You don't need me to tell you that only five
years after the worst economic crisis in Asia, Asia is bouncing
back. Barely a decade after the 1997 financial crisis has
lapsed, do all eyes of the world have to keep close watch
once again at the phenomenal recovery of Asia because Asia
is rising.
What has happened in the last 4-5 years in Asia
is both historic and unprecedented. What has Asia achieved
in the last 4-5 years is both phenomenal and impressive. What
has been taking place in Southeast Asia in the last 4-5 years
plays a major component in the change and the rise of Asia.
History teaches us that societies prosper when
they can adapt to confront changes whose shape and timing
lie beyond their control. The rise of Asia is just such a
change.
Allow me to walk with you this morning through
the Asian and Southeast Asian rising experience of the last
4-5 years from Thailand's perspective. By the end of the walk,
I am confident that you would be most proud to have been closely
associated with Asia and to have your conference convened
in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
First, let me take Southeast Asia and look at
ASEAN.
The 1997 financial crisis hit the members of
ASEAN and the economies in East Asia the hardest. The roaring
tigers of Asia just became timid tamed cats overnight. A silver
lining in the sky turned into dark stormy clouds over an instant.
But, as you heard from my Prime Minister last
night, Thailand in the last 4 years quickly built our shelter,
strong enough to protect us against recurring storms. As we
fed the right economic nutrients to different sectors of the
society, economically and socially, we further prescribed
them with vitamins and minerals to build stronger immunity
system. Most importantly, we taught ourselves to be self-reliant
based on sufficiency economy. Thailand's very fast and full
recovery came as a surprise to many but not a surprise to
any of us in the government. We had known with confidence
that our dual track economic policy was guiding us to the
right direction because it was a policy based on the outside
in approach
Fortunately, our friends in ASEAN also recover
in their own right albeit different scales and speeds. The
1997 crisis and our recovery, surprisingly has turned ASEAN
into a more robust and solid cooperation. Naturally ASEAN
learnt to adapt. Within 2 years, we could agree on the ASEAN
Community based on 3 pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community,
the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and the ASEAN Security
Community, which none of us thought could have been achieved.
It is exciting to see ASEAN drafting economic
integration roadmap. It is even more exciting and welcoming
to see ASEAN laying down action plans to promote democracy,
human rights education, and security cooperation. It is indeed
gratifying to see successful elections taking place during
the last 3 years in many ASEAN members, for example Indonesia,
the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.
On the economic front, Thailand and Singapore
were persuasive enough to convince our friends to take a new
approach in starting things in ASEAN. In the past, the ASEAN
minus X formula based on consensus meant that it took so long
to start any new development in ASEAN. The new Two plus X
formula proposed by Thailand and Singapore shall enable any
two members or more, who are ready, to start to tango. The
rest will join whenever they are ready.
With the new formula, the ASEAN Community can
take shape faster and sooner than originally anticipated.
But that left us in ASEAN with problems caused by economic
disparity between the old members and the new members of ASEAN.
The latter will find it hard and take so long to start the
tango.
Thailand happens to border three of the four
new members. Despite all the initiatives ASEAN had taken to
accelerate growth in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam,
we felt there was more role Thailand can play to further propel
their growth to catch up with the rest of ASEAN at a desirable
speed.
For this reason, in 2003 Thailand initiated
the new economic cooperation strategy based on our principle
of "prosper thy neighbor" to bridge the development gap between
the old and new ASEAN members. We realized that considering
the size of the Thai economy which is 10 times bigger than
those of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar combined, the term "economic
cooperation strategy" proposed by a much richer neighbor could
have been both alarming and frightening to smaller neighboring
economies. We fully appreciated that fact and were fully aware
that no international economic cooperation, let alone economic
strategy, can be achieved without the presence of political
trust.
With this in mind, we knew that since 2001 we
had intensively built such unprecedented trust and confidence
with our immediate neighbors sufficient to initiate an economic
strategy cooperation with them for mutual benefits. We knew
that the time was just right. That was exactly why Thailand
felt confident we could offer this initiative to our neighbors
as our major contribution towards the realization of the ASEAN
Community.
The initiative was instantly welcome by all
our immediate neighbors. Instead of facing with apprehension
and mistrust delay, this economic cooperation strategy, known
as ACMECS, became one of the fastest implemented multilateral
economic projects Thailand had ever experienced. The cooperation
ranges from economic to tourism and human resource development.
With ACMECS as well as other ASEAN initiatives,
the new members of ASEAN can be more confident to look forward
to the earlier opportunity to start the tango. And then the
ASEAN Community shall look ever more promising.
With that looming, ASEAN is also expanding its
free trade arrangements with several major trading partners
such as Japan, China, and the Republic of Korea. These arrangements
and the long-standing cooperation between ASEAN plus three
East Asian nations, comprising China, Japan, and the Republic
of Korea, the East Asia Community is emerging. The emergence
of the East Asia Community, and the East Asia Summit at the
end of this year in Malaysia is also attracting new players
to East Asia, that is India and perhaps New Zealand and Australia.
This latest development, in my view, has led to a new geographical
and political landscape of "East Asia", the one which cannot
be overlooked by anyone in this room.
To enhance greater stability, ASEAN is engaging
key partners to support the regional order for peace and security
by welcoming them to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
in Southeast Asia (TAC). Within the past two years, key players
who have already done so include China, India, Japan, Pakistan,
the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. I see this
unprecedented accession of so many non-ASEAN countries as
testimony to the confidence in the rise of Southeast Asia.
That is what has happened in Southeast Asia
just in the course of the last few years. That is what has
happened in Southeast Asia where only 7 - 8 years ago, many
felt would suffer a long downturn syndrome, economically and
even politically.
This is Southeast Asia rising and rising fast.
Distinguished participants,
While Southeast Asia is rising and rising fast,
other parts of Asia are also moving in tandem.
As for China, what is happening there in term
of growth and changes are self-evident and self-explanatory.
Let me turn to South Asia, the part of Asia where, plagued
with conflicts and mistrust in the past, economic cooperation
had been somewhat slower than what the sub-region should deserve.
With its richness in human and natural resources,
this sub-region has enormous economic potential, a potential
that is only beginning to be realized with the services outsourcing
from multinational companies. With its combined population
of over 1.4 billion and a growing upper class making up 10-15
percent of that, South Asia is a dream market for every international
trader and investor. The opening up of markets and the impressive
GDP growth in Pakistan and India will lead to another important
pillar of Asia rising, adding to the pillars of East Asia,
Southeast Asia, and West Asia or commonly referred to as the
Middle East.
With political trust and confidence emerging
between members of this sub-region, real economic cooperation
within SAARC (South Asian grouping) has become, in the last
year or two, an attractive possibility. Thailand had been
watching the recent developments in South Asia with appreciation.
With our "look west" policy, we realize that the combined
potential of South and Southeast Asia is essential for the
strength of the rising Asia. To convince you that the emergence
of building blocks has contributed to rising Asia, I need
to walk you through more names and more abbreviations to examine
together those regional groupings which are mushrooming and
being strengthened in recent years.
At the sub-regional level, ASEAN of Southeast
Asia and SAARC of South Asia have established a channel of
cooperation between the two regional organizations. But when
I chaired the ASEAN-SAARC meeting with the Foreign Minister
of Pakistan last year in New York, I suggested for the first
time, the ASEAN-SAARC Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Various
new dimensions were added to our cooperation. A key initiative
was the possibility of linking our respective free trade areas,
namely AFTA of ASEAN and SAFTA of South Asian countries.
In the meantime, Thailand continued our "look
west policy" by accelerating if not reinvigorating the activities
of another sub-regional cooperation called BIMSTEC. BIMSTEC
is a multidimensional cooperation between some members of
SAARC and some members of ASEAN who share geographical link
to the Bay of Bengal. The BIMSTEC activities were recharged
when its meeting was upgraded to Ministerial level and Thailand
offered to host its ever first Summit in 2004. Following that
Summit, overnight, BIMSTEC turned from a relatively unknown
cooperation into an important sub-regional cooperation with
a framework for BIMSTEC Free Trade Area arrangement.
I have just returned from a visit to four Central
Asian nations, namely Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
and Uzbekistan. I was impressed by their potentials for development
and their contribution for the rising, stronger Asia. The
framework of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence
Building Measures in Asia or CICA which comprises many countries
in Central Asia has added a security dimension to Asia-wide
cooperation. CICA aims at enhancing confidence from differences,
and at building a sense of security from diversity and at
strengthening a culture of peace and tolerance which are the
key elements for promoting economic prosperity. The Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) which links some Central Asian
countries with China and Russia just had its recent meeting
held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Further to the west of Asia, the Gulf States
have their cooperation in the form of the GCC, the Gulf States
Cooperation Council. The GCC is not only active amongst themselves,
they are forging closer links with other sub-regional cooperation
in Asia.
Distinguished participants,
For all its economic progress and despite comprising
some of the most advanced economies, Asia is still home to
more than 60 percent of the world's poor. The overall potential
of the continent must be fully tapped should we place poverty
eradication our first priority. Asia may be rising. Different
parts of Asia may be rising. But the rise of Asia or any sub-regions
of this continent cannot yield the benefits to the people
of Asia as a whole if Asia lacks a continent-wide cooperation.
Asia needs an Asia-wide cooperation that can pool resources,
turn diversity into strength, render Asian potentials into
tangible outcome for all sectors of the Asian population.
The Asia Cooperation Dialogue or the ACD that
you heard from my Prime Minister last night was initiated
in 2002 here in Thailand to serve those purposes.
The ACD marks the first ever pan-Asia cooperation
forum to generate partnership and strength of Asia from Asian
diversity and differences. This framework represents a new
paradigm of cooperation, serving to fill in the missing linkages
between existing intra-Asian cooperation arrangements. Now
comprising 28 Asian members, the ACD represent members from
ASEAN, SAARC, CICA, GCC as well as China, Japan, the Republic
of Korea, and Russia. ACD does cover countries representing
all sub-regions of Asia.
The ACD is working towards the strengthening
of Asia in order to steer the continent towards a community
that contributes to global prosperity and sustainable development.
The ACD marks an important cornerstone of building an Asian
Community. With East Asia Community emerging, stronger cooperation
within SAARC, GCC and among central Asian countries, ACD will
be the important forum to link these frameworks and evolve
into an Asian Community.
In ACD, we have stressed inclusiveness and respect
for diversity rather than institutional form. We have quite
consciously avoided institutionalization, as we sought to
avoid pushing any one nation or government beyond their own
comfort level with cooperative endeavors.
No doubt, ACD will continue to grow and expand.
As we are doing so, many countries and organizations, even
outside Asia, express their interests in engaging with ACD.
For the ACD to be mutually beneficial both for Asia and the
rest of the world, we must not be shut in.
On the contrary, ACD is ready to reach out to
interact and cooperate with partners beyond Asia. By engaging
those interested countries, we can reach the ultimate goal
of not only to increase Asia's competitiveness and capacity,
but also to build Asia as a stronger partner for the global
community. We envisage the ACD as the umbrella covering the
sub-regional building blocks for the rising Asia.
As Asia is rising, ACD will be strengthened
to defy any misperception in the past that Asia was too diverse
to cooperate as a continent. Four years ago, many people did
not believe that Asia can work together, that ACD can be conceived,
and that ACD can deliver results. With 19 projects, ranging
from tourism to the Asian Bond market, ACD has started to
produce tangible results. With new thinking and new ideas
out of the old paradigm of institutionalized cooperation framework,
I believe that Asia is ready to head towards the Asian Community
that will evolve from the ACD.
Distinguished participants,
I do not only believe in Asia, its potential
and its people but I am also a strong believer in open regionalism.
I believe in promoting Asian cooperation as a vehicle for
global prosperity. I believe in regional building-blocks as
an important component of effective multilateralism. That
is why Asia is strengthening linkages with Europe and the
Pacific. That is why South-South cooperation is also important.
Asian links with Africa and Latin America must be further
strengthened.
Why do we need to ensure strong and effective
regionalism? Why do we need to ensure strong and effective
multilateralism? Why do we need new ideas to ensure further
cooperation?
Because we live in the world of change. As former
Finance Minister, I saw the 1997 Asian economic collapse with
regret that the crisis could not have been prevented but was
exacerbated partly because Asia lacked effective regional
mechanism. A generation of economic progress and prosperity
can be gone in a wind of change within one single day in the
absence of strong and effective regional foundation for cooperation.
The fast recovery and the rise of Southeast
Asia and Asia of the last few years where I took part in its
steering in my capacity as Foreign Minister did not arrive
without plan and design. We were fully aware that we needed
to redress those problems of Asia. We knew that sub-regional
building blocks are important as foundation for regional power.
We knew that these building blocks must be matched by continental-wide
cooperation framework. They were the results of new thinking
and new ideas because we knew we needed to redress those problems.
I was glad to share my view of the rise of Asia,
the new thinking in coping with changes and challenges in
the world for the benefits of Asia and the global community
when I recently had the honor to attend the Petra Conference
of Nobel Laureates as a guest of His Majesty King Abdullah
II of Jordan. Our discussion in Petra made plain the need
to risk together, invent together and experiment together.
Across the globe, we sense the same dangers and feel the same
opportunities. Rich or poor, we desire the same things - peace,
prosperity and stability. Strong or weak we cannot continue
resisting changes if we want the better.
That is the path Asia and Southeast Asia on
the rise is taking. We in Asia will continue to make changes
for the better Asia and the better global community. My dear
friends from the Asia Society, let's join hands for this endeavor.
Thank you very much.
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