ministerial meeting took place in Brussels to mark the inauguration of
the EC/ASEAN dialogue. We also played our full part in the second
EC/ASEAN ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur in March 1980 when the
Cooperation Agreement was signed. The third such meeting held in
London in October 1981, was of great value in re-affirming the harmony
of our views on the major issues of the current international situation.
I may add that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is well aware of
the need for the closest liaison with the ASEAN representatives in
London and they are given frequent briefings on major international
developments.
On the political side it seems to us that ASEAN has been an unqualified
success and that a certain "ASEAN-mindedness" is very evident among
the counsels of the five member states. We have applauded ASEAN's
principled stand on such issues as the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia
and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and its humanitarian policy of
assistance to the Vietnamese boat people. We have supported the ASEAN
position on Cambodian representation in the United Nations (despite
considerable misgivings among sections of the British public concerning
the record of the Khmer Rouge rulers. We have come to regard the
ASEAN countries as a force for moderation and wisdom in such influen-
tial Third World gatherings as the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group
of 77, as well as in the United Nations. ASEAN is now regarded as the
cornerstone of stability in SE Asia and the British Government has made
clear its sympathy with the concept of ZOPFAN, now a fundamental plank
in ASEAN policy. In the wider context, too, ASEAN's dialogues with
Japan, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are seen as valuable
contributions to the spread of international understanding and the habit
of consultation amongst the ASEAN countries themselves appears to be
well established.
/When