He made the statement here on Wednesday in his lecture at Universiti Utara Malaysia when receiving an honorary degree from the institution.
With the stance "it does not mean that ASEAN intervenes in the domestic affairs of a member country or takes over the affairs of member countries. The concept is ASEAN must become part of the solution," he said.
With regard to it, he said constructive discussions had to be done among ASEAN leaders.
President Yudhoyono expressed appreciation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations when dealing with border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia and with Myanmar when it was facing strong embargo and sanctions from Western countries.
"Thank God the ASEAN leaders at the time were able to build kind of consensus on how ASEAN could be part of the solutions of the problems faced by the ASEAN member countries. This cultural approach and the method, I think, need to be maintained and used in the future," he said.
President Yudhoyono said there must be a regional-level conflict management system for the future. He said although cooperation architecture and instruments to prevent possible open conflicts and clashes using forces have already been in place they gave no guarantee that conflicts or clashes would never happen in the future.
This is because of differences found in the countries in the region such as in terms of ideology, political system, economic policies as well as other national strategies and policies, he said.
"And, do not forget that some countries in the regions also have a history of conflicts such as over border disputes, rivalry, political competition, conflicts of interest in the economic and energy sectors and others. Some others were also involved in wars with other countries in the region," he said.
(Uu.H-YH/KR-BSR/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
