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SINGAPORE: Nobody in Asia supports sanctions against Myanmar, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with CNBC Asia ahead of the ASEAN summit.
He also revealed that Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein agreed to have UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari brief the East Asian Summit leaders about his discussions with Myanmar's leaders.
Myanmar wants to isolate itself but ASEAN has been trying to get it to open up.
Mr Lee, who opposed sanctions against Myanmar, said, "Even if you do cause pain in Myanmar through sanctions, you're only causing that to the population, to (the) poor and helpless who are already suffering and miserable. You're not going to succeed in causing pain to the leadership or causing the leadership to seriously sit down and talk about reconciliation and work out arrangements which is going to work for Myanmar because regime change sounds good as a slogan but I don't think it's that good as a policy. It's been tried in Iraq and nobody wants to have an Iraq in Southeast Asia."
Despite the Myanmar saga, Mr Lee is confident ASEAN will continue to work closely together with the signing of the ASEAN Charter and the Economic Blueprint, which aims at having a significant economic community by 2015.
"The world is changing very fast. The Chinese are not waiting for you; they are growing 10 to 12 per cent per year. The Indians are also growing, nine, sometimes ten, per cent per year. And if we don't get our act together and have a significant economic community within (the region) by 2015, I think we're going to be in trouble," he said.
"We can talk about being the centre of Asia and the hub of Asian cooperation, but people aren't going to pay attention to us because the substance won't be there. So we have to make it by 2015," he added.
The signings of the ASEAN Charter and the Economic Blueprint will take place on Tuesday. - CNA/ac
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