Jakarta - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the ASEAN Charter was a document that would enable South East Asia to face various global challenges in the future with greater unity.
"With the ASEAN Charter, we are more bound than ever before to bridge differences among ourselves in more friendly ways," President Yudhoyono said in his address at a ceremony marking the promulgation of the ASEAN Charter at the ASEAN Secretariat here on Monday.
He hoped that in the future, differences among ASEAN member countries should be regarded as an asset, and not as a potential for conflicts, for the sake of ASEAN unity.
The ASEAN Charter, he said, would also strengthen regional integration and make ASEAN a law-based organization as well as a community-based organization in the political, economic and social fields.
With the charter, ASEAN member countries would share a commitment and spirit to move toward the formation of an ASEAN Community in 2015, he said.
Yudhoyono also said with the ASEAN Charter, ASEAN member countries would be more ready to deal with international problems and challenges, such as climate change, the energy crisis, the approaching deadlines of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and competition in the globalization era.
According to the president it was thanks to the existence of ASEAN, that the Southeast Asian region had enjoyed peace and stability over the past four decades.
After suffering intervention by various countries during the colonial era, the Southeast Asian region was now in the lead of changes and movements in the region and its environs through various forums, including the ASEAN+3 and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Originally, the ceremony to officially put the ASEAN Charter into effect was scheduled to be held in Thailand during an ASEAN Summit but the Thai government decided to postpone the summit due its domestic political crisis.
However, Indonesia proposed that the ceremony be held as scheduled (Dec. 15) but at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.
Besides President Yudhoyono, the ceremony was also attended by ASEAN member countries` representatives, ASEAN foreign affairs ministers, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan, and several Indonesian ministers.
During the ceremony, the audience also observed a few moments of silence in remembrance of the late Ali Alatas, a former Indonesian foreign affairs minister, who died last week.
Ali Alatas had represented Indonesia on an Eminent Persons Group set up in 2006 to explore the future directions of ASEAN and advised ASEAN Leaders on what they should do, what should be put into the ASEAN Charter.
ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Laos, and Vietnam.
Source: www.antara.co.id (December 15, 2008)