A.S.E.A.N. waits for Hanoi

Press, 13 July 1985, Page 11

A.S.E.A.N. waits for Hanoi

By 1

KATE WEBB,

of Agence

France-Presse, (through NZPA) KUALA LUMPUR Although Vietnam has virtually rejected an Association of South-East Asian Nations proposal for talks on Kampuchea, A.S.E.A.N. officials have not given up hope of a longterm political solution to the Kampuchean (Cambodian) conflict. Nor, as its statements this week have underlined, is A.S.E.A.N. ready to accept the continued presence in Kampuchea of Vietnamese troops, which they see as a threat to the stability of the region and of Thailand in particular. The A.S.E.A.N. proposal, adopted by A.S.E.A.N. Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur before meeting allied counterparts, called for indirect talks between Vietnam and the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Guerrillas of the three

resistance factions that make up the exiled C.G.D.K. have been fighting the Heng Samrin Government installed in 1979 — and subsequently maintained — by Vietnamese troops who ousted Kampuchea’s previous Khmer Rouge regime. Hopes that A.S.E.A.N.’s latest proposal might be accepted were based on the premise that the two sides need not first accord each other diplomatic recognition, and could speak through an intermediary. Last week, before A.S.E.A.N. officials had formally presented the proposal to the Vietnamese Government, the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian Affairs director, Mr Toshii Goto, returned from a trip to Hanoi saying that the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry had rejected the formula as “completely out of the question”. In Hanoi, the Vietnamese Communist Party’s newspaper, “Nhan Dan” said that Peking had co-authored the

proposal, and asserted that its real aim was to cover up the delivery of more weapons to the resistance. Until Tuesday A.S.E.A.N. spokesmen refused to accept that Hanoi’s sharp criticism could be considered an official rejection. The spokesmen said that the Vietnamese Government had not received the official proposal, delivered in Hanoi on Monday, when “Nhan Dan” made its comments. What is less clear is whether Hanoi would have been quite so negative about an earlier proposal for indirect talks between the United Nations-recognised C.G.D.K. and the Phnom Penh government. A.S.E.A.N. dropped the original plan because of C.G.D.K. fears that even indirect talks with Phnom Penh might imply recognition of the Heng Samrin Government, which is not recognised by the United Nations. Singapore’s Foreign Minister, Mr Suppiah Dhana-.

balan, asked by reporters whether A.S.E.A.N. might return to the original Malaysian proposal, indicated that the door was not closed. “We have to wait and see. That’s something in the future,” he said. Of all the A.S.E.A.N. members — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — Indonesia has throughout been the most sympathetic to Vietnam’s own strategic and security concerns. Indonesia was appointed as the group’s official “interlocutor” with Hanoi, and its foreign minister, Dr Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, has said that he would continue to seek a solution to the problem of the presence of between 150,000 and 170,000 Vietnamese soldiers in Kampuchea. Dr Mochtar said this week that he considered the process would be long, possibly taking years. One problem he has

pointed out is Vietnam’s fear of China and the Chin-ese-backed Khmer Rouge, one of the three C.G.D.K. factions, which Hanoi insists must be eliminated before any talks can be contemplated. Dr Mochtar has said that he thinks this fear, and Hanoi’s dependence on the Soviet Union, could be reduced by improved relations between Washington and Hanoi. A small step towards improved United States-Viet-namese relations was taken last week when Hanoi promised to return the remains' of 26 United States servicemen listed as mission in action in the Vietnam war. Although the prospect of an immediate solution to the Kampuchean problem is not great, Dr Mochtar has said philosophically that at least the conflict has not spilled over into the rest of the region, and that efforts to find a solution would continue.