Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo (L) receives Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win before the executive committee meeting of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone a day before the opening of the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Manila on July 29.

MYANMAR’S partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said last week that they welcomed the reconvening of the National Convention to draft a new constitution, part of the government’s effort to restore a democratically elected government to the country.

“We welcomed the convening of the final session of the National Convention on 18 July 2007 and we were encouraged by assurances of Myanmar that the National Convention process will be completed within two months,” the grouping’s foreign ministers said in a joint statement issued at the end of their annul meeting in Manila on July 30.

“We also expressed the hope that it would allow Myanmar to move to the next steps of the Road Map,” the statement said.

It also called on Myanmar “to show tangible progress that would lead to a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future”.

The statement said the meeting included a briefing by Foreign Minister U Nyan Win on recent developments in the process of national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy as envisaged in the seven-step roadmap for a transition to democracy announced by the government nearly four years ago.

The National Convention was reconvened in May 2004 as the first step of the roadmap, which also includes provisions for holding a referendum to approve the draft constitution, which will be followed by democratic elections.

“We recognised the fact that Myanmar has tried to address the many and complex challenges she is facing.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to remain constructively engaged with Myanmar as part of building ‘one caring and sharing’ regional community together,” the statement said.

ASEAN aims to transform itself into a “rule-based, socially cohesive and politically stable” community by 2015.

As part of this effort, the grouping is working to adopt an ASEAN charter, the first draft of which was submitted to the foreign ministers at the Manila meeting.

Among other highlights at the meeting was the endorsement
by ASEAN foreign ministers of Thailand’s proposal to appoint Mr Surin Pitsuwan as the next secretary general of the regional grouping.

Mr Surin, a former Thai foreign minister, is expected to be confirmed to the post at the ASEAN leaders’ summit. He will succeed Mr Ong Keng Yang, whose five-year term ends on January 1, 2008.

Myanmar joined ASEAN 10 years ago. The grouping’s other members are Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.