ASEAN LEADERS CONFIRMS PARTCIPATING IN ASEAN SUMMIT

By D.Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The prolonged domestic political crisis is not
stopping leaders from all the 10 Asean countries and their six dialogue partners
from attending the 14th Asean Summit in Chiang Mai as Thailand is capable of
hosting the event without major problem, Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan
said Monday.

Surin told a news conference at the Thai Foreign Ministry here that all the
Asean leaders, as well as heads of government or state from China, South Korea,
Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand had confirmed their presence at the
Summit from Dec 13 to 18.

"The Asean secretariat is confident that Thailand, as the host, is able to
take care of the summit. And no one has raised any concern about the current
situation and the impact on the Summit," said the former Thai foreign minister.

Surin also said that despite the delay in Thailand endorsing the legal
frameworks concerning Asean, he was confident that it would not affect the
smooth running of the summit and he hoped the country would be able to sort out
the problem soon.

Thailand has been in severe political crisis after the anti-government
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seized the Government House which also
houses the Prime Minister's Office on Aug 26. Today, thousands of protesters
blocked the Parliament, forcing its joint session to be postponed.

A new session to endorse the Asean framework has been proposed for Dec 8
and
9.

Surin also said that the summit would began on Dec 13 with the senior
officials meeting, followed by a gathering of foreign ministers the following
day where they would also meet the High Level Panel on the Asean Human Rights
Body and High Level Experts Group on follow-up to the Asean Charter which would
be enforced after the Summit.

On Dec 15, there would be several sideline meetings involving Asean
leaders,
including the Fifth Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East Asean Growth
Area (Bimp-Eaga) Summit and Fourth Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle
Summit.

Besides the Asean Plus Three Summit on Dec 16, there would also be a
separate summit with China, Japan, Korea and India, he said, adding that
the Fourth East Asia Summit would take place on Dec 17.

All leaders would then fly to Bangkok for the Asean-United Nations Summit
before attending the Asean Global Dialogue where notable personalities such as
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, World
Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy and International Monetary Fund
(IMF) Managing Director Dominique-Strauss-Kahn would be participating.

"We would like to hear from the world financial institutions and leaders on
what they expect Asean to do in this time of financial crisis. Asean has a role
to play in this situation and we would like to know from them how we can
contribute," he said.
-- BERNAMA