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.