-
16. ASEAN and Indochina: The Dialogue
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
ASEAN and Indochina: The Dialogue 81 By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville 16. ASEAN AND INDOCHINA The Dialogue CARLYLE THAYER Reprinted in abridged form from Carlyle Thayer, “ASEAN and Indochina: The Dialogue”, in ASEAN into the 1990s, edited by Alison Broinowski (London: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 138–61, by permission of the author. THE DIALOGUE, 1987–88 The so-called ‘new thinking’ in Soviet Asian policy, enunciated by Gorbachev at Vladivostok in July 1986, has led to a rapid improvement in Sino-Soviet relations. In the short space of 18 months, all three of China’s long-standing obstacles to a normalisation of Sino-Soviet relations were removed. A major turning point in Soviet diplomacy on Kampuchea came in May 1987 when Gorbachev, borrowing from his Afghan model, pressed Hanoi and Phnom Penh to accept ‘national reconciliation’ as the formula for peace in Kampuchea.1 Later, following Sino-Soviet discussions, Soviet officials nudged their Vietnamese allies into advancing the date for the withdrawal of military forces from Kampuchea. In late 1987 and again during the second half of 1988, in response to these pressures, Vietnam withdrew a considerable number of its troops from Kampuchea. In November 1988, in the highest level of contact in nearly three decades, Qian Qichen, the Chinese foreign minister, visited Moscow and reached agreement to hold a summit meeting between Deng Xiaoping and Gorbachev during the first half of 1989. Indonesia, ASEAN’s interlocutor with Vietnam, was quick to respond to these international developments. In April 1987, citing ‘new movement . . . and government changes’, the Indonesian foreign minister Mochtar ended a two-year hiatus and journeyed to Vietnam. There he reached agreement with Nguyen Co Thach on Vietnam’s participation without preconditions in ‘informal talks’ to be held in Jakarta among the Cambodian parties and ASEAN states. Thailand and Singapore objected and in a special ASEAN meeting convened in August seemingly pulled the rug out from under Mochtar by insisting, among other things, that the CGDK’s six 016 AR Ch 16 22/9/03, 12:41 PM 81 82 Carlyle Thayer By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville points of March 1986 be the basis of discussions . These differences were overcome later in the year when ASEAN circulated a clarification of its position on the eve of the annual UN vote on the Kampuchean question. ASEAN’s clarification reverted to the original understanding reached between Mochtar and Thach in Ho Chi Minh City. The process of dialogue then began in earnest. In December 1987, Sihanouk and Hun Sen met outside Paris for their first face-to-face meeting. This was followed by a second round of discussions in January. Then followed the first Jakarta Informal Meeting (JIM-1) which convened in July. This was organised as a two-stage affair involving a discussion of internal issues by all four Cambodian parties, followed by a discussion of the international aspects of the conflict by the Cambodian parties, Vietnam, Laos and the six ASEAN states. The Jakarta Informal Meeting set up a working group of senior officials to continue the discussions. The working group met in October and again in January 1989. In between these sessions, the first summit involving Sihanouk, Son Sann (KPNLF) and Hun Sen (PRK) was held in Paris in November. It too set up a working group.2 A second informal meeting, dubbed JIM-2, was held in January 1989. Also, as a result of initiatives pursued by Sihanouk, France has agreed to sound out interested parties on the convocation of an international conference on Kampuchea. In 1985, when Vietnamese propagandists referred to discussions between Vietnam and Indonesia as a ‘dialogue with ASEAN’, Singapore’s foreign minister branded this assertion a ‘lie’. In a literal sense, the minister was correct for at no stage has ASEAN as an organisation met with Vietnam to discuss the Kampuchean question. At present, the ministerial-level discussions held in Indonesia have the status of an ‘informal meeting’. Since 1987, however, a bilateral dialogue at ministerial level has developed between Indonesia, ASEAN’s designated interlocutor, and Vietnam. In late 1988 they formed a joint working group of senior officials when then conducted two rounds of detailed discussions on Kampuchea. In parallel with these developments, in 1988, Vietnam also conducted ministerial level discussions with Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. THE FUTURE For much of the past decade, ASEAN has devoted a large measure of...