ASEAN TO ADOPT GUIDELINES ON SETTLING CHARTER-RELATED DISPUTES

Jakarta, March 26 (ANTARA) - ASEAN member countries are expected to sign a set of guidelines for the settlement of disputes over the grouping's charter at their summit in Hanoi next April 5-9, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tengku Faizasyah said.

"The guidelines will serve as a protocol or mechanism of action when ASEAN members have different interpretations of articles in the ASEAN Charter," Faizasyah said here on Friday at a press conference.

He said the guidelines would reflect another development in the process of the ASEAN Charter's implementation in the region. In the future, he said, all actions and decisions taken by ASEAN members were expected to be based on the same understanding of every article in the charter.

Faizasyah added another document to be signed during the ASEAN Summit was a set of guidelines for foreign countries to cooperate with ASEAN through the assocation's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).
"We realize that over the years, many countries outside the region had expressed their interest in cooperating with ASEAN. The guidelines will regulate how those countries can access the ASEAN TAC," he said.
The ASEAN Summit 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam, was to take the theme "Toward ASEAN Community, From Vision to Action." Faiza said the theme was in accordance with Indonesia's recommendation for ASEAN members to accelerate the taking of concrete steps to intensify cooperation with each other.

He said the inplementation of three pillars of cooperation in the region, namely in the political, security, economic and social fields were already being realized.
"However, cooperation in the economic sector seems to be the most developed compared to the other two sectors. Indonesia during the Hanoi ASEAN Summit is going to try to spur the other countries to give more attention to political and security cooperation," he said.

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(T.A051/B/A051/A/H-YH) 26-03-2010 19:40:58