UPDATE 3-Snubs all round for ASEAN as ministers skip forum. (ASEAN-(UPDATE-3,) 2005-07-27 08:36:32

UPDATE 3-Snubs all round for ASEAN as ministers skip forum. (ASEAN-(UPDATE-3,) 2005-07-27 08:36:32

From Foreign wire stories (w/summaries):

(Adds background, edits)

By Ben Blanchard and Ed Cropley

VIENTIANE, July 27 (Reuters) - A major Asia-Pacific security forum suffered another serious setback on Wednesday when Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said he would skip the meeting for a surprise trip to Myanmar.

His Indian counterpart, Natwar Singh, also pulled out of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) annual meeting on Thursday and Friday, dealing yet another blow to a security institution already struggling for relevance after no-shows by top diplomats from Washington and Tokyo.

Im going to Myanmar tonight, Li told reporters on the sidelines of an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Vientiane without offering any further details.

An aide said Li would not return to the Lao capital after his visit to Yangon -- which announced on Tuesday it would be skipping its turn as ASEAN chairman in 2006 -- because of an "unplanned event".

China watchers said protocol-minded China may have felt awkward with its foreign minister sitting down opposite mere deputies from Washington, Tokyo and New Delhi.

But his absence casts an even longer shadow over ARF, which is already missing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura, who have more pressing interests elsewhere.

Machimura is in New York lobbying for a permanent Japanese seat on the United Nations Security Council. Rices office insists other essential travel is behind her absence from the ARF, a regular fixture for her predecessors.

In southeast Asia, theyve fallen back a little too easily on platitudes and generalities rather than delivering outcomes, said Ross Babbage of Canberra-based consultancy Strategy International.

The major external players want to talk substance and get on and get things done. Now ASEAN is paying the price."

NORTH KOREA THERE, BUT ELSEWHERE

Lis decision to head to Yangon and meet the former Burmas military junta smacked of China seeking to firm up already strong ties with its internationally reviled but resource-rich southern neighbour, he added.

This is a great opportunity for the Chinese to underline their special relationship with Burma, Babbage said.

The resumption in Beijing of six-way talks to resolve North Koreas nuclear crisis -- an issue that has long dominated ARF meetings, given the presence of top diplomats from Pyongyang and Washington -- has also pushed it deeper into obscurity.

With typical resolve, ASEAN officials refused to accept the big country pullouts had turned their big day in the spotlight into a diplomatic sideshow.

Lots of them are here, but they are just leaving," spokesman M.C. Abad told a news conference. The fact that many of them are here assures us they remain committed to the objectives of the ARF. They have said so."

Australia, which has been trying to foster closer ties in Asia, was one of the few ASEAN partners expressing a commitment, making clear it would ratify a regional non-aggression pact in October to allow for its inclusion in a 16-country East Asia Summit in December.

REUTERS Reut12:36 07-27-05

Copyright: (c) TWP, AP, Reuters, others as appropriate

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