ASEAN-China Relations: Realities and Prospects

5. Strengthening ASEAN-China Cooperation in the ASEAN Regional Forum

40 Liu Xuecheng 5 Strengthening ASEAN-China Cooperation in the ASEAN Regional Forum Liu Xuecheng The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the most important governmental forum for multilateral security dialogue and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. It was officially initiated by ASEAN and the inaugural ARF Ministerial Meeting was held in Bangkok on 25 July 1994. For the past decade, all the annual ARF ministerial meetings have been hosted by ASEAN as the driving force. All the participants have exchanged views on security issues of common concern in a spirit of candour, thus reducing each other’s suspicions and differences, enhancing mutual understanding and trust, and accelerating the process of security cooperation in the fields of common concern. The Second ARF Ministerial Meeting adopted the Concept Paper in 1995, designing the three-phase process of security dialogue and cooperation. They are the promotion of confidence-building, development of preventive diplomacy, and elaboration of approaches to conflict. ASEAN is the driving force for this process with other participants as dialogue partners. ARF has made substantial progress in promoting confidence-building and developing preventive diplomacy in the region for the past ten years. 05 ASEAN-China Relations Ch 5 5/8/05, 9:01 AM 40 Strengthening ASEAN-China Cooperation in the ASEAN Regional Forum 41 ARF has sought to increase mutual confidence and trust through dialogue and to promote peace and stability through multilateral cooperation on an equal footing. Such an approach is in line with the new security concept coming into shape in the course of security dialogue and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region since the end of the Cold War. In 2001, ARF made substantive progress. All participants reached consensus on the three documents about the enhanced role of the ARF Chair, Experts/Eminent Persons (EEP), and Preventive Diplomacy (PD), which signifies an important achievement in the transitional process as ARF moves from confidence-building measures to preventive diplomacy. In response to the situation after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the ARF has placed greater emphasis on anti-terrorism, non-proliferation of WMD and non-traditional security issues, and it has started substantive discussions on and collaboration in their solution. All this has added to the vitality and dynamism of the ARF process. China has valued ARF and became its dialogue partner at the time of its founding. China has worked hard to strengthen its cooperation with the ASEAN countries within the ARF framework for regional security and stability. NEW SECURITY CONCEPT: COMMON FOUNDATION FOR COOPERATION IN ARF Since the end of the Cold War, the trend toward economic globalization and regional grouping has brought the Asia-Pacific region unprecedented opportunities for cooperation as well as new challenges to regional security. The region is facing more and more diverse security threats with traditional and non-traditional security factors intertwined. The recent events in international affairs have demonstrated that security threats tend to be multifaceted and global in scope. Interdependence and cooperation among the regional countries are ever deepening. A new security concept has evolved to be multi-fold, with its contents extending from military and political to economic, social, environmental, and many other areas. Therefore, many countries have realized that they share more common security interests and are more interdependent in maintaining peace and stability. Regional security problems should be solved through multilateral cooperation and comprehensive measures. Only in this way can a peaceful and stable security environment be created for economic development in the region. Since the 9/11 attacks, the Asia-Pacific security situation has been undergoing major and profound changes. Unstable and uncertain factors 05 ASEAN-China Relations Ch 5 5/8/05, 9:01 AM 41 42 Liu Xuecheng have increased tremendously with terrorism and other non-traditional security issues getting more salient. Against this backdrop, Asia-Pacific countries have adjusted their domestic and foreign policies to adapt themselves to the evolving situation and meet the new security threats and challenges. While the threat of international terrorism is on the rise in the region, the basic contradictions have not been resolved and some deep-rooted problems remain.Traditional security concepts still dominate in the strategic perspectives of certain countries. Efforts to develop military strength and attempts to use military means to solve new security issues would probably lead to arms race and regional tensions. New security challenges have brought into question traditional security concepts and security strategies. Under such...