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Consensus eludes ARF on Pak. entry

By P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE June 18. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) today failed to reach a definitive consensus on the admission of Pakistan as a participant-member at this stage. The sensitive issue was discussed during the ARF's tenth annual session in Phnom Penh. With this question being raised by the ASEAN itself as a core concern of the ARF, the entire episode acquired a touch of high diplomatic drama.

The ARF, an elite entity for security dialogue, consists of all the ASEAN member-states as also major powers like the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, India and the European Union among others.

The overall sense of today's discussion on this subject was summed up by the Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hor Namhong, in his capacity as the Chairman of the ARF's tenth annual session.

The formulation left no room for doubt that the issue of Pakistan's admission had now been delayed and not conclusively settled.

The Cambodian Minister's statement on this aspect was phrased as follows: ``The (ARF) Ministers noted that applications to participate in the ARF (deliberations) had been received from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Timor-Leste. They also noted that (the) ASEAN countries agreed (only yesterday) to lift the moratorium (on new membership of the ARF) and to consider the applications of new (that is, potential) participants ... on a case-by-case basis. They (the ARF Ministers) received the communication that (the) ASEAN Foreign Ministers had reached a consensus (yesterday) to accept a new participant in (regard to) the ARF. They (the ARF Ministers) agreed (now) to keep these two inter-linked issues for further consideration''.

Regional diplomats and analysts said the ARF's deliberations on these issues were, at one level, marked by the ASEAN's efforts to explore an imminent expansion of the wider regional forum.

At another level, the non-ASEAN members of the ARF, or at least some among them, were somewhat surprised at the speed at which the ASEAN itself sought to raise the issue of expansion without the benefit of much preparatory work at the wider level of the larger regional forum.

The ``selective'' manner in which Pakistan's case acquired a sense of urgency became very transparent during today's ARF session.

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