Surin Pitsuwan nominated to be Asean Sec Gen
Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan confirmed on Saturday he is nominated with other three Thais to serve as next secretary general of Asean.
He said he has been approached by a Thai selection committee to serve the position.
"I have accepted the nominated. If I am selected, i am willing to serve." said Surin on the side of yesterday's meeting of the Second Asean-Japan Forum for Partnership in East Asia Community Building.
"The selection has its own process. Let it run it course," Surin said.
Other candidates from Thailand include former Thai Ambassador to the UN Khunying Laxanachantorn Laohaphan, exAmbassador to Washington Krasit Piromya and the current Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Virasak Futrakul.
The current Asean secretary general, Ong Keng Yong, is due to step down in a year's time. The next Asean secretary general will be faced with the challenge of guiding the 40yearold regional grouping to become a more legallybinding regional bloc as prescribed the recently established Asean Charter.
In his speech to participants at the Saturday's meeting, which include academics, journalists and policy makers from Japan and Asean, Surin urged Tokyo to do more to help bridge the development gap within the Southeast Asia region and to strengthen research and development in the region in such ways that compliment the needs of both sides.
Developing powerful "R&D powerful" in Southeast Asia, said Surin, would be a testimony that both sides has fully move away from the donorrecipient model by has largely defined the bilateral ties between Japan and countries in Asean.
Surin pointed to the European Union and the United States where R&D are carried out in one place but the production and other forms of implementations are carried out elsewhere.
Surin said Japan's "soft power" and its track record of goodwill can help Asean make this transition.
On the issue of security, Surin said Asean Regional Forum, the only security forum in the AsiaPacific region, to move beyond "confidence building measures" towards "conflict management" and possibly, come up with a mechanism that address "conflict resolution."
He called for the establishment of "listening posts" to monitor conflict areas and other hotspots in the AsiaPacific region and the possibility of setting up a team of ARF envoys to address these issues to minimize the problem.
by Don Pathan
The Nation
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