12th ASEAN Summit

MANILA, Philippines -- Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to draw up procedure on how they can better protect each other’s citizens caught in crises in countries outside the regional bloc.

This is in line with the goal of establishing the 10-member regional bloc as one community by 2015, Assistant Foreign Secretary for ASEAN Affairs Luis Cruz, said.

Cruz, also the ASEAN director general for Philippines, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, that this procedure would be a “landmark document” that the ministers will take up at the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting opening next week in Manila.

The drafting follows through the agreement that ministers of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam forged during the 39th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2006.

“It is aimed at helping ASEAN nationals in crisis situations outside ASEAN countries...for member-nations to help each other out with migrant workers when they have no embassies in the country they're in,” Cruz said.

The document is “a direct response” to the agreement reached during the last ministerial meeting “to have in place procedures that will guarantee our ability to help each other's nationals in time of need, consistent with our commitment to act as one family, as one community,” said Cruz in a briefer on the Manila meetings.

The measure is aimed at plugging the possible diplomatic hole ASEAN member-countries may encounter in some third countries, which ASEAN ministers noted during the Kuala Lumpur meet.

Expressing “deep concern” for their citizens, ASEAN ministers said in a joint statement after 2006's ministerial meet: “We recognize that some of our member countries may not have diplomatic representation [in third countries] and therefore our nationals may not be able to receive adequate assistance in certain countries.”

Cruz said the new document hit home as it would benefit millions of overseas Filipino workers scattered around the world, including in countries where the Philippines lacks consulates or embassies.

Conversely, it would be an opportunity for Philippine missions to extend a hand to ASEAN citizens in need in foreign countries where their countries have no consular services.

This happened during the war in Lebanon in 2006, when the Philippine mission in Beirut assisted Thais who had sought its help amid the embassy's efforts to repatriate thousands of Filipino workers trapped there. Thailand has no embassy in Lebanon.

Cruz said ASEAN ministers were also set to “endorse a document that establishes a committee to ensure the implementation” of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

The declaration, made during January's ASEAN Summit in Cebu, lists down the obligations of sending and receiving states to protect the human rights and welfare of migrant workers.

The Manila Ministerial Meet will provide an opportunity for ASEAN member-nations and their dialogue partners to hold bilateral talks in the sidelines of the event, to be held from July 29 to August 2 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
The ASEAN members will meet dialogue partners as the ASEAN Regional Forum, where matters of regional peace and security are expected to be taken up, said Cruz.

ASEAN's dialogue partners include the European Union, Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Russia, the United States, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the newest country to take part in the forum.

Also slated in the Manila meetings are the East Asia Summit, a meeting of ASEAN member countries with Australia, New Zealand and India, and the ASEAN Plus Three, a meeting of the ASEAN with China, Japan and South Korea.