Southeast Asian foreign ministers met on Monday to implement a charter setting up a bloc of half a billion people, but hopes of building a European Union-style community may be blown off course by the global economic crisis, Reuters reported. Often dismissed as a talking shop, the 10 member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the charter in November 2007 with the aim of creating an economically, socially and politically integrated bloc by 2015. But even without the impact of the credit crunch, political turbulence in some of the eclectic grouping of nations ranging from highly developed Singapore to Laos, a poor landlocked communist state, makes the task look increasingly tough. Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said there was a danger that the region could face protectionist pressures as the global economic crisis deepens. "It's true in nature that all countries now find that protectionist tendency is coming stronger because of the crisis, but that's all the more important to think of the trade agenda in the process to counter this protectionist force," said Yeo. Analysts said the charter faced too many obstacles right now in the diverse region of 560 million people. "For the time being, it will be better to postpone the discussion and preparation towards economic integration, because now the more important thing is how they can support one another to be able to come out of this crisis with minimum damage," said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, an economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said a meeting of finance ministers should be held by January to discuss the Chiang Mai Initiative, a network of bilateral currency swaps worth $118 billion between ASEAN and its dialogue partners China, Japan and South Korea. The idea is that a country facing a short-term liquidity shortage can borrow reserves from partners to absorb any heavy selling pressure on its currency without having to resort to damaging devaluations, as some did in the crisis a decade ago. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. NEW SUMMIT SLATED FOR FEBRUARY While the EU and organisations such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) have created major trading blocs, ASEAN has lagged behind. Marking an inauspicious start, the ASEAN charter was supposed to be unveiled at a summit in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai this month, but a heightening of a three-year political crisis in Bangkok meant that Indonesia stepped in to host a meeting of foreign ministers. A new summit could be held in Thailand, the group's chair, between Feb 24-26, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said, although there appears to be no swift end in sight to the Thai political crisis, pitting Bangkok's royal and military elites against supports of ousted and exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra. On Monday, at least 200 supporters of Thaksin blocked access to Thailand's parliament and threw bricks at cars of some MPs after opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva won a thin majority in a vote to become prime minister. The ASEAN charter was agreed last year and then gradually ratified by members, with Indonesia the last to ratify it in October.
