"ASEAN should not become a player in power politics," Dr. Lam Peng Er of the East Asia Institute of Singapore said at a discussion on Japan, China and Dynamic of East in the post-global crisis era at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus here on Tuesday.
He said Southeast Asian regional development could be started from the areas of economy, humanity, culture, environment and community in East Asia.
Where political cooperation was concerned, ASEAN could work closely with China, Japan and South Korea, he said.
He said ASEAN might face international and domestic structural constraints in developing political cooperation with Japan. Yet the constraints did not mean that Japanese top political leaders could not make political choices to improve relations.
Meanwhile, Tirta Mursitama of the UI`s Center for East Asia Cooperation Studies said as the current ASEAN chair, Indonesia had a strategic position to determine the direction and agenda of ASEAN for the sake of its definitive and concrete national interests.
He said the future of border areas must top the Indonesian government`s list of priorities. If such elementary problems could not be resolved, the future of the border areas serving as the veranda of this archipelagic country would be a mere dream full of illusion.
(SYS/S012/A014)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
