NAGLAGLAGAN! Ravina, overall lider na; Feliciano out na

Asia’s largest security forum has approved the Philippine initiative to form a quick reaction group to respond to outbreaks of war and political crises in the region.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Erlina Basilio said senior diplomats meeting in Manila this week are finalizing the creation of the so-called “Friends of the Chair,” a four-member ministerial-level group that can be rapidly convened when security threats erupt.

The move by the 26-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is considered a crucial step in deflecting criticism that it is an annual talk-shop incapable of actively dealing with security threats and conflicts in the volatile Asia-Pacific region.

Basilio said the ASEAN consensus endorsing the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Friends of the Chair was finally reached.

The TOR is one of the most important outcome documents of the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting, she stressed.

Basilio noted it took years before the proposal for a quick-response crisis team gathered steam.

“It has a very long gestation period, it’s like giving birth to an elephant,” Basilio said. “Every word, every phrase, every paragraph was analyzed.”

Basilio expressed optimism that the Philippine initiative will be approved by the Ministers for the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Manila on Aug. 2.

The group will gather facts and recommend steps that could immediately be taken when ARF is not in session.

It will be composed of the forum’s current, incoming and past chairmen, positions held only by foreign ministers from the ASEAN, and one minister from outside the region.

Founded in 1994, ARF has been hobbled by the diversity of its members and its consensus-based decision-making. Since its birth, it has focused on building trust among its members through dialogue and confidence-building measures.

Every year, ARF brings together Asian and Western powers, including the United States, the European Union and China, in providing an important forum for discussing an array of threats from North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to al-Qaeda-linked terror threats in Southeast Asia.

Among those scheduled to attend the ARF is US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, who will be arriving in Manila tonight.

Through the years, however, the ARF has failed to rapidly advance from being a discussion group to its avowed goal of engaging in “preventive diplomacy” - and ultimately taking an active role in resolving conflicts.

A lack of any quick-response mechanism, for example, forced ARF ministers to hastily convene on the sidelines of another diplomatic gathering to discuss how to deal with violence in East Timor when it broke free from Indonesian rule in 1999.

“The reason why we set up the friends of the chair is precisely to enable the current chair of the ARF to respond to a timely manner and in any emergency situation. We cannot call ARF right away because we meet only once a year so it is the job of the current ARF chair to do something about it,” Basilio said.

Basilio, though, explained the Friends of the Chair cannot be activated in the situation over North Korea because of the ongoing six-party talks.

“Anywhere in the world, anywhere in the region it will apply because ARF is the only security forum of the association,” Basilio said.

The 10 ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Their dialogue partners in ARF are Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the EU, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Korea, and the US - with AP, Renee Puno, Bernice Estero