18th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting Co-Chair’s Statement

E. Con­sult­ing on region­al issues of glob­al concern

33. Min­is­ters stressed the need to main­tain peace and sta­bil­i­ty in the region as well as the impor­tance of the inter­na­tion­al non pro­lif­er­a­tion regime. They urged the DPRK to com­ply ful­ly with the UNSC Res­o­lu­tions and deci­sions and to refrain from actions which could exac­er­bate the sit­u­a­tion and recalled that the DPRK can­not have the sta­tus of the nuclear weapon state in accor­dance with the NPT. The Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their sup­port for the Six-Par­ty Talks as the best means to achieve denu­cleariza­tion of the Kore­an Penin­su­la in a peace­ful man­ner. They expressed con­cern about the 21 April 2010 mem­o­ran­dum issued by the DPRK’s For­eign Min­istry on the nuclear issue. They also empha­sized the impor­tance of address­ing the human­i­tar­i­an concerns.

34. The Min­is­ters reit­er­at­ed their deep con­cern over the ris­ing ten­sion fol­low­ing the sink­ing of the Cheo­nan and recent pub­li­ca­tion of the find­ings of an inves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by Repub­lic of Korea in coop­er­a­tion with a num­ber of coun­tries. They expressed con­do­lences to the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies. The Min­is­ters called on all par­ties con­cerned to exer­cise restrain and to step up efforts to pro­mote last­ing peace and secu­ri­ty on the Kore­an Peninsula. 

35. The Min­is­ters wel­comed the start of prox­im­i­ty talks between Israelis and Pales­tini­ans as a pos­i­tive step for­ward and con­firmed the urgency of a com­pre­hen­sive, just and last­ing peace in the Mid­dle East. In line with the Mid­dle East Quar­tet state­ment in Moscow on 19 March 2010 they called for urgent progress towards the two-state solu­tion with the State of Israel and an inde­pen­dent, demo­c­ra­t­ic, con­tigu­ous and viable State of Pales­tine, liv­ing side by side in peace and secu­ri­ty. The Min­is­ters sup­port the Unit­ed States’ efforts to ensure nego­ti­a­tions on all final sta­tus issues, includ­ing bor­ders, Jerusalem, refugees, secu­ri­ty and water, respect­ing pre­vi­ous agree­ments and under­stand­ings. Min­is­ters expressed con­cern about the sit­u­a­tion on the ground, includ­ing in East Jerusalem. The Min­is­ters urged the gov­ern­ment of Israel to imme­di­ate­ly end all set­tle­ment activ­i­ties in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, includ­ing nat­ur­al growth, and to dis­man­tle all out­posts erect­ed since March 2001. The Min­is­ters remained grave­ly con­cerned about the sit­u­a­tion in Gaza; they urged the full imple­men­ta­tion of UNSCR 1860 and the full respect of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law. They reit­er­at­ed their call for an imme­di­ate, sus­tained and uncon­di­tion­al open­ing of cross­ings for the flow of human­i­tar­i­an aid, com­mer­cial goods and per­sons to and from Gaza. They recalled that a com­pre­hen­sive peace must include a set­tle­ment between Israel and Syr­ia and Israel and Lebanon. The Min­is­ters encour­aged inter-Pales­tin­ian rec­on­cil­i­a­tion behind Pres­i­dent Mah­moud Abbas and sup­port­ed the medi­a­tion efforts of Egypt and the Arab League in this respect. The Min­is­ters reit­er­at­ed their appre­ci­a­tion of the Arab Peace Ini­tia­tive which offers a frame­work for the achieve­ment of a com­pre­hen­sive peace in this region.

36. The Min­is­ters not­ed with deep con­cern the sit­u­a­tion regard­ing the Iran­ian nuclear pro­gramme and urged Iran to ful­fil the oblig­a­tions set out in UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tions on this mat­ter. They not­ed the impor­tance of full and trans­par­ent coop­er­a­tion by Iran with the IAEA. The Min­is­ters expressed their sup­port for a nego­ti­at­ed solu­tion to the Iran­ian nuclear issue and under­lined the impor­tance to take appro­pri­ate mea­sures to that end in the con­text of the dual track approach.

37. The Min­is­ters, not­ing its impor­tance, expressed their sup­port of pro­mot­ing peace, sta­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ment in Afghanistan and main­tain­ing Afghanistan’s uni­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty, includ­ing suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cut­ing the forth­com­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions and for con­tin­ued improve­ment of the elec­toral process, gov­er­nance, civil­ian capac­i­ty and human rights issues. They not­ed the need for a more region­al approach by engag­ing Afghanistan’s neigh­bours and con­tin­ued engage­ment of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to assist the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Afghanistan in regain­ing their liveli­hood, and the recon­struc­tion and reha­bil­i­ta­tion of their coun­try under full Afghan ownership.

38. Min­is­ters con­grat­u­lat­ed Pak­istan on the adop­tion of the 18th Con­sti­tu­tion­al Amend­ment as a pos­i­tive step towards strength­en­ing par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy. They expressed con­fi­dence that it would con­tribute towards good gov­er­nance and human rights, elec­toral reform, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and coun­ter­ing extrem­ism and terrorism. 

F. Next ASEAN-EU Min­is­te­r­i­al Meeting

39. Min­is­ters agreed that the 19th ASEAN-EU Min­is­te­r­i­al Meet­ing will take place in Brunei Darus­salam in 2012.

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →