ASEAN senior officials to meet in Manila (2004-09-17)
Friday, September 17, 2004
ASEAN senior officials to meet in Manila (4:45 p.m.)

MANILA -- Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in the Philippine capital of Manila over the weekend to take up a draft strategic partnership agreement with China, the foreign ministry said Friday.

The meeting on Saturday and Sunday will bring together officials with the rank of deputy foreign minister or undersecretary from ASEAN member states Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The meeting will take up an ASEAN-China "joint declaration on strategic partnership for peace and prosperity," the department statement said without elaborating.

ASEAN and China agreed in November 2001 to establish an ASEAN-China free trade area by 2011.

Diplomatic sources said the senior officials would also discuss a controversial bilateral agreement between China and the Philippines to conduct a joint project to gather data on petroleum resources around the Spratly Islands.

The Spratlys are claimed in whole or in part by ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines along with China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Vietnam had earlier charged that the Philippine-China accord on the Spratlys violated an earlier agreement between China and ASEAN to avoid tensions in the disputed area. (AFP)

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