Note: This Electronic Research Collection is an archive site. For the most current information, please visit the
U.S. Department of State 93/07/26 Statement at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference Office of the Spokesman Secretary Christopher The United States: A Full Partner In a New Pacific Community Statement at the Six-plus-Seven Open Session of the ASEAN Post- Ministerial Conference, Singapore, July 26, 1993. It is an honor for me to represent the United States at ASEAN's Post- Ministerial Conference (PMC). During his trip to Asia earlier this month, President Clinton committed the United States to working with the nations of Asia to create "a New Pacific Community," built on shared strength, shared prosperity, and a shared commitment to democratic values. The ASEAN nations--and this Post-Ministerial forum--have a vital role to play in developing the vision of a New Pacific Community. Today I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the challenges we face together in three areas--security, economics, and democracy. I'd also like to explore with you ways in which we can act together to successfully address the global, regional, and national dimensions of these challenges. Security As the President said at the Korean National Assembly, "We must always remember that security comes first." Let me be clear: the United States will remain actively engaged in Asia. America is and will remain an Asia-Pacific power. We will abide by our solemn treaty obligations, continue our forward military presence, and work with the nations of the region to maintain a peaceful and secure Asia. We will do so because it is in the interest of the United States and its Asian partners. At the top of the security agenda is the need for strong international efforts to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. First and foremost, the United States is committed to tough and effective global rules to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. That is why President Clinton made the decision to continue our nuclear testing moratorium through September 1994 so long as other nations refrain from further tests. That is why the United States is firmly committed to negotiating a multilateral, comprehensive test ban treaty. And that is why we will vigorously pursue the indefinite extension of the Non- Proliferation Treaty in 1995. North Korea's adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its full compliance with its IAEA safeguards obligations and the North-South Denuclearization Declaration are essential. The United States is determined to see a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula. As you know, we have been engaged in intensive discussions with North Korea aimed at bringing it back within the fold of nuclear responsibility. The latest talks in Geneva marked three further steps toward resolving these issues: North Korea will begin consultations with the IAEA on outstanding safeguards issues; North Korea committed to discuss nuclear and other issues with South Korea; and North Korea announced its willingness to convert to reactors that are far less suitable for nuclear weapon material production. We are determined to make steady progress toward a solution to the nuclear problem and will continue our dialogue with North Korea as long as it is productive. Our vigilance will not cease short of North Korea's full compliance with its obligations. A second major challenge is the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction and the missiles that can deliver them. This is a growing problem for Asia because economic and technological development means the region can now produce chemicals, sophisticated electronics, and other products and services that the proliferators want but are now denied in Europe and the United States. Asia is at the stage when its participation in international agreements and establishment of export-control regimes are most important. In the near future, the United States will launch new efforts to achieve these goals. We look forward to working in concert with all of you. Another security challenge we face together is the need to respond to conflicts around the globe through collective engagement. This challenge of peace-keeping--in places such as Bosnia, Somalia, and Cambodia--requires a global response, and the nations of Asia and the Pacific have a vital part to play. ASEAN has made especially valuable contributions to regional peace. Since its founding in 1967, ASEAN has been a force for regional stability and cooperation. I want especially to point to its central role in the courageous effort to bring peace and democracy to the long- suffering people of Cambodia through diplomacy, deployment of units, and provision of equipment. The United States will continue to work with you and others to provide the Cambodian people a brighter future. Since 1986, we have supplied some $200 million in humanitarian assistance to meet pressing needs throughout Cambodia. We have contributed more than $500 million to the UN peace-keeping mission in Cambodia. We are committed to continuing to help with the difficult task of rebuilding that country. At the regional level, the post-Cold War dynamic has produced radical shifts in old balances of power. A New Pacific Community must forge a new regional balance that promotes stability, regional arms control, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. As ASEAN has recognized and the United States has fully supported, we need new regional security dialogues to meet common challenges. This forum is most promising in this regard. Asia is not Europe. The 1990s are not the Cold War. Thus, together we envision not the building of blocs against a common threat but rather intensified discussions among nations that may harbor apprehension about the intentions of others. Underlining a change in U.S. policy, President Clinton announced at the Korean National Assembly earlier in July that we will participate actively in regional security dialogues in Asia. We believe such discussions can complement our bilateral relationships, help reduce tensions, enhance openness and transparency, and prevent destabilizing arms races. These dialogues should therefore be inclusive: The United States welcomes the progressive integration of China, Russia, and others in this ASEAN-PMC framework. As the President said, "these arrangements can function as overlapping plates of armor . . . covering the full body of our common security concerns." Let me emphasize, however, that regional security dialogues in no way supplant America's alliances or forward military presence in Asia. Rather, they are supplements to ensure a peaceful and stable Asia in the post-Cold War era. Prosperity Let me now turn to the economic dimension. As Secretary of State, I believe our capacity to carry out vital security commitments is powerfully advanced by the renewal of America's economic strength at home and abroad. In the long run, only a healthy, self-confident America will be able and willing to engage positively in Asia. Under President Clinton's leadership, America is back as a responsible manager of its economy and as a leader on global economic issues. We stand on the verge of reducing our budget deficit by $500 billion over the next 5 years. We are taking tough steps on the deficit and in areas such as education, health care, and competitiveness. And as we saw at the G-7 summit, the rest of the world is taking notice. The United States is prepared to be a full partner in a New Pacific Community. Forty percent of America's trade is now with Asia, accounting for more than 2.3 million American jobs. Only a quarter century ago, total U.S. trade with all of East Asia was less than that with Latin America--and our trade with the ASEAN countries was a fraction of that. Last year, two-way trans-Pacific trade was $325 billion, three times that of U.S. trade with Latin America and almost 50% more than with Western Europe. Collectively, ASEAN is now our fourth- largest trading partner. No region depends more on trade than Asia, and no region has more at stake in the success of global trade liberalization. Asian nations have asked the United States to keep its market open, and we are determined to do so. Asian nations have asked America to remain engaged in the region, and we are determined to do so. But for the American people to appreciate the benefits of such engagement, Asia's markets must be open to American goods and services. Thanks in part to the work at the recent G-7 summit, there is a renewed sense of urgency to the drive toward more open markets. The summit leaders reached an important agreement on tariff reductions in the Uruguay Round negotiations. ASEAN and its dialogue partners can make an immediate and constructive contribution to the world trading system by endorsing the market access breakthrough achieved at the G-7 summit and by joining with other nations to push for a successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round this year. This region has much to gain by the successful conclusion of the Round and much to lose from a failed negotiation. Our belief in the benefits of trade liberalization underlies our commitment to APEC as the cornerstone of regional economic cooperation. Representing about half the world's GNP, APEC can be a focal point for building a New Pacific Community and will provide the framework for expanded trade and investment flows through the Asia-Pacific region. We are looking forward to hosting the APEC Ministerial meeting in Seattle this November. I hope you will join me in using that meeting to adopt a trade and investment framework for market-oriented policies, provide a greater role for the private sector, and strengthen APEC as an institution. Also, as you know, President Clinton would like his APEC colleagues to join him immediately after the Ministerial to discuss, in a quiet setting, the economic challenges we must meet to realize the vision of a New Pacific Community. The President believes we must find cooperative solutions to our economic problems--how to sustain growth, create jobs, increase the competitiveness of our industries, and improve the living standards of all our people. I hope your leaders will agree to attend. Democracy Our successes in the security and economic realms have brought with them a strong new impulse toward freedom and democracy. As President Clinton has said, "expanded trade and more open economies not only enrich people, they also empower them." By promoting free markets, we strengthen free societies and we strengthen regional peace and stability. Democracies are not just a moral imperative; they are a practical necessity. Democracies do not threaten their neighbors. They do not practice terrorism. They do not spawn refugees. They respond to the needs of their citizens and thereby achieve greater stability and prosperity for all. We respect the religious, social, political, and cultural characteristics that make each of our countries unique. We were pleased that, despite differing perspectives, all our countries were able to agree at the World Human Rights Conference in Vienna in June that human rights are universal. Cultural, social, and other differences cannot justify denying those rights. Some have argued that democracy is somehow unsuited for Asia and that our emphasis on human rights is a mask for Western cultural imperialism. They could not be more wrong. In fact, democracy has been strengthened over the last decade around Asia--in Taiwan and Korea, in the Philippines and Thailand, in Mongolia and elsewhere. The yearnings for more freedom are not a Western export; they are a human instinct. ASEAN nations have played a critical role in the transition to democracy in Cambodia. A 90% turnout in the recent Cambodian election, amid violence and intimidation, is a tribute to the courage of the Cambodian people. That turnout also testifies to the value of our persistent efforts together on this issue. Even in the barren terrain of what was once a "killing field," democracy is taking root. But the international community must remain engaged and vigilant in helping the people of Cambodia secure a peaceful and prosperous future. Throughout Asia, we recognize far-sighted and brave individuals whose lives and words speak eloquently to the universal appeal of democracy and the rule of law. Last week, President Clinton marked the fourth anniversary of the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the courageous Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He renewed his call to Burma's military leaders "to release unconditionally Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience, to respect the results of the 1990 elections, and to undertake genuine democratic reforms." In Asia as in the rest of the world, freedom is linked to development, prosperity, and the spread of market principles. Our work together and our shared democratic values will provide an even stronger bond between Americans and Asians in the coming century. Recognizing how far we have come together, I believe we can realize the vision of a New Pacific Community, a community of free peoples and nations empowered to lift Asia and the Pacific into a new era of peace, prosperity, and freedom. My delegation and I look forward to these discussions at the Post- Ministerial Conference. Thank you. (###)