Thailand proposed to set up ASEAN affairs panel

BANGKOK, August 9 (TNA) - Former foreign minister Surakiat Sathirathai has proposed that Thailand set up a special panel tasked with ASEAN-related affairs in the lead-up to the formation of a single community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015. Speaking at a seminar on the pros and cons of the ASEAN Single Community held in Bangkok Thursday on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the 10-member ASEAN, Surakiat said that the proposed strategic committee tasked with working out strategies on energy, neighboring countries and transport networks in the region is expected to help Thailand cope with changes and policies of neighbouring countries toward the ASEAN Single Community. Surakiat acknowledged that ASEAN was initially formed to counter communism and later to promote economic cooperation, and that the ASEAN Single Community will be further developed in three main poles, including the political and security community, the economic community and the social and cultural community. For the political and security community, ASEAN will enhance regional cooperation on political, civil and security affairs and promote peaceful solutions, democratic values and human rights protection; while for the economic community, ASEAN will liberalize trade, professions, banking, and capital movements and for the social and cultural community, ASEAN will develop its own identity. According to the former Thai foreign minister, transport networking among ASEAN member countries have, comparably, progressed well and has attracted non-ASEAN countries in the region, namely China, Japan and the United States. (TNA)