This year's meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum could not have been more timely. China and Taiwan were engaged in a vicious exchange as Beijing threatened war against the island it regards as a renegade province. Tensions in Indonesia were high as political parties rejected the results of the June national election and as East Timor prepared for its own vote on independence. In Northeast Asia, the prospect of another North Korean missile test cast a shadow across the entire region. Each underscored the need for a more vibrant and resilient regional security architecture. Against all odds, the ARF could, with effort, meet that need.
The ARF was set up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1994 to discuss regional security issues with its "dialogue partners," 12 other countries that include Japan, the United States and China. It was established amid high hopes that such a forum would give ASEAN an international political presence; those ambitions have foundered in recent years. Although there are several reasons for that, the chief culprit has been the regional economic crisis. It has distracted ASEAN governments and revealed that the organization's much vaunted unity was less real than assumed. And if ASEAN was not unified, then ASEAN had no foundation.
Not surprisingly, the mood at the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting that preceded the ARF was glum, as participants reflected on the sad truth. But the ARF meeting itself surpassed expectations. In contrast to the past, the group did not shy away from tough issues. And, this year, they produced results.