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SINGAPORE: Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister, George Yeo, has said it is absurd that while everyone in Southeast Asia is powering forward, Myanmar has moved into reverse gear.
Speaking at the Asian Globalisation conference in Singapore, Mr Yeo also said the world can be optimistic about prospects for East, South East and South Asia over the long term.
He said a major theme of this century is how Asia changes the world.
"If we can maintain the peace in Asia for another generation, large parts of Asia will enter the First World, and it will become a very different world," Mr Yeo said.
"But it is in the nature of human beings to be contentious even when they cooperate. Things can still go badly wrong and derail our progress. We must work at them and progressively build structures which promote cooperation and enable conflicts to be peacefully resolved or managed," he added.
But Mr Yeo also said that over the short- to medium-term, there are also important challenges in North Korea and the Taiwan Strait, besides Myanmar.
He said: "North Korea and the Taiwan Strait are two problems which I do not need to go into. The key is keeping Sino-US relations on an even keel.
"The Chinese are completely hard-headed in their assessment. They say that Sino-US relations can never be very good but neither can they go very bad. The interdependence has become too great.
"The only regional institution where these two big powers come together is APEC, which must remain the most important regional organisation for us. When problems suddenly arise, such as during the US spy plane incident over Hainan in the spring of 2001, it was APEC which provided a ready forum for them to meet."
On Myanmar, former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan believes a resolution must come from the region itself.
He said: "We are rather grateful for the role of the special envoy of the Secretary General of the UN. He has been going around and listening to ideas and suggestions from countries in the region.
"But in the end, Asian ways of solving the problem would most likely be a regional one and that would mean countries neighbouring to Myanmar will have to be playing more important roles in trying to resolve the problem."
"It will not be immediate, it will take time because the issue has been with us for so long and it needs a lot of consultation, a lot of cooperation and a lot of support," added Mr Surin, who is the ASEAN Secretary General-designate.
"But the level of interest that has been shown in the past few weeks certainly offers us an opportunity to come together, to find a common ground and try to resolve the problem together," he said.
A conference on Asian Globalisation is never complete without a discussion on the role of the United States and Europe in Asia's rise.
Conference participants felt that Europe has been rather slow in re-engaging Asia after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, while participants from the United States were confident that the US will continue to remain engaged in this region, regardless of which party comes into power in the US.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, from the American Princeton University, said: "Among American policy thinkers, there is tremendous awareness that the rise of Asia is one of the great sea changes in our lifetimes in global politics and an equal awareness that the United States must be present.
"ASEAN actually offers us a wonderful place to be present - a group of friends and nations we have worked for a long time and a more neutral platform when we look at North Asia, South Asia - a very good place to be engaged. I suspect that in the next administration, Americans will be showing up."
The two-day conference will also discuss issues of social protection and Asia's impact on energy and the environment. - CNA/ir
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