SE Asian nations seek EU-style common market

Ten Southeast Asian leaders concluded an ambitious accord today to fashion an European style economic community by 2020 in a region where democracies neighbour dictatorships and First World economies abut financial basket cases.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were quick to point out that the envisioned community, part of a blueprint dubbed Bali Concord II, would not entail any political union like Western Europe’s.

And while the accord also calls for a regional security community to combat terrorism and other transnational crimes, there would be no military alliance akin to Nato.

“We have just witnessed a watershed in the history of ASEAN,” Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said during the signing ceremony in Bali.

“That will make it possible for our children and their children to live in a state of enduring peace, stability and shared prosperity.”

The Southeast Asian leaders chose Bali as the venue for their two-day summit that opened today to send a signal that they’d never be paralysed by the terrorists who blew up two nightclubs a year ago on this tropical island, killing 202 people, including more than 20 Britons.

ASEAN’s members include the fledgling democracies of Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia, the limited democracies of Malaysia and Singapore, the communist regimes of Laos and Vietnam, an absolute monarchy in Brunei and a military dictatorship in Burma.