DRUG-FREE ZONE DEADLINE PUSHED FORWARD 5 YEARS

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has ended its annual
meeting by agreeing to slash by five years the deadline for making the
region a drug-free zone - the new target is 2015.

The outgoing chairman, Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, said it was a
sign the group had achieved a higher level of "openness and confidence" to
rebut critics who claimed it lacked dynamism and, increasingly, relevance.

Asean also had adopted a "troika system" of crisis management that he said
would enable the group to use more initiative and flexibility in dealing
with regional hotspots.

Mr Surin said if he could have activated such a troika system this past
year, "my chairmanship would have been very different". The rapidly moving
crisis in East Timor had left Asean floundering and flat-footed - to its
deep embarrassment.

A troika team would normally consist of the present, past and next foreign
minister chairmen of the group.

Mr Surin was vague about what crises the troika system could be applied to
when every member has a veto and when domestic affairs are specifically
excluded. Officials admitted the troika would not be used to tackle the
massive outflow of drugs from Burma: instead it has been Thailand's
initiative to raise pressure on its neighbour by lowering the drug-free
target date.

"This will add pressure . . . to deal with a drug menace which is a common
problem for all of us," Mr Surin said. It would send a signal that
suppression must be faster and fiercer than before.

Moving the drug target represents a victory for Thailand's bid to push
Burma's military regime to crush the ethnic rebel traffickers it claims
operate along the Thai border with relative impunity.

Mr Surin said the drug-trafficking problem would be further discussed at
the Asean Regional Forum tomorrow in the "transnational crime" category.

The 10-member group acknowledged in a joint communique that it would have
to work much harder to address the perception of many outsiders that it was
a "feeble" organisation, as Singapore's Foreign Minister Shanmugam
Jayakumar noted.

Asean will introduce a three-yearly regional trade fair to complement the
recently introduced investment road shows.

The statement stressed the reform of government, regulatory and business
institutions should be speeded up in order to support an economic recovery
in a region that remained "volatile".

A US$40 million (HK$312 million) fund will be set up to boost human
resources development - particularly among the poorer new members of
Indochina and Burma. More effort will be made to spread information
technology skills around the region.

Asean underlined its increasingly strong focus on the regional heavyweight
China and the financial leader Japan by rejecting suggestions that dialogue
partners be expanded from 10 to include countries such as Pakistan.

Mr Surin said "some members" were concerned that any increase in the number
of partners might distract the group from "consolidating" and tackling
concerns.

Officials said privately that if Pakistan was admitted then it might be
harder to exclude the several central Asian republics, "and that is far too
much for us to handle".

Mr Surin, as outgoing chairman, asked for "understanding and sympathy" that
if there were no surprises or even creative initiatives in the final
statement then Asean was determined to tackle its problems in more
energetic and sophisticated ways.

"Do not make any quick judgments. Let us show what we can do," he said.