Transcript of the Door-Stop Interview of Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo following the Asean Foreign Ministers' Welcome Dinner at One Degree 15 Marina Club, Sentosa Cove on 19 February 2008

Minister Yeo: We just had our first retreat session out in the boat, just ourselves the Ministers. The atmosphere was very warm; large part of the evening was spent on discussing Myanmar. The position after the summit is that Myanmar prefers to deal directly with the UN but as members of the family, we were interested with what was going on and Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win gave us a briefing.

For the first time now, they have put a timetable to their roadmap. They are planning for a referendum in May; the new Constitution ought to be released at the end of March. They will establish a referent commission to oversee the election process and if it's accepted, then elections will be held in 2010 after which the SPDC government will hand over power to the new elected government. So when Nyan Win provided these details to us, we responded positively but I must say that there remained considerable scepticism about the details of the implementation. A number of Ministers talked about the importance of the integrity of the process and it must have international credibility. It can't just be an internal arrangement without independent verification. We made that point emphatically to Nyan Win while acknowledging the positive aspects and being quite open about our concerns and our scepticisms. Philippines Foreign Minister, Bert Romulo, I think was the most sceptical among us. As you know they have taken a position. On the whole, it was a free-flowing exchange among the Ministers on the basis of long acquaintance with the Myanmar Foreign Minister.

We asked about the Gambari mission. The original plan was to let Gambari in April after their New Year but because of repeated requests by Gambari and by others, they say that Gambari will be welcomed in Myanmar in early March. We saw that as being good and we hope that Gambari would have full access again. We asked Myanmar to consider allowing Gambari to station an officer there on a continuing basis because he himself could only visit once in a while and he has indicated to us that it will be good if he could have a man on the ground and we urged that on the Myanmar Foreign Minister.

We discussed also the arrangements for the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July. There will be many meetings within the few days. There are some technicalities, some housekeeping matters that we have to agree on. All those issues were cleared without fuss. Tomorrow morning, we will be having an informal golf game here on the island, then there will be a working lunch to discuss the mobilisation of resources for the ASEAN Secretariat. It's going to be better resourced, it will have to be strengthened. In the afternoon, we have four hours to talk about the implementation of the ASEAN Charter. After lunch, we will also with pleasure receive the ratification instruments from Brunei, from Laos and from Malaysia. It's a pity that Syed Hamid can't be here. I called him up this morning to wish him all the best for the coming elections and to ask him if he had any instructions for me in the chair. It was very good and even though he's in the hustings, he said yes, this, that and the other, he wanted me to take into account Malaysia's views which I greatly appreciated. He is very well represented by his Secretary-General, Dr Rastam.

Q: What indication did the other Foreign Ministers whose countries have not ratified the Charter given you as far as the progress of the ratification in their respective countries?

Minister: I think that except for the Philippines, all the other countries should not be a problem. Cambodia told us that within two weeks, they should have theirs ratified and for the others, it's a matter of months. Indonesia has a process which requires the DPR's approval. Pak Hassan told me that DEPLU are already fully engaging the DPR and beginning their process and he hopes that it can be done within the next few months. As for the Philippines, Bert Romulo, the Foreign Secretary told us that it requires the approval of both the House and the Senate so it's a bit more complicated. They have taken a certain position publicly both during the Summit and in Davos but I suggested to the Philippines that without ratifying the Charter and calling into force, we cannot hold countries to the standards expressed in the Charter. So the first step is to have the Charter ratified and then afterwards to hold individual countries accountable to those standards that they have signed on. But of course, these are part of their domestic political process and I'm cautiously optimistic that in the end they will come around.

Journalist: Minister, is 2010...?

Minister: Where are you from?

Journalist: Bloomberg Sir. Is 2010 too slow for ASEAN and if you...

Minister: 2010 too slow for what?

Journalist: For the general elections in Myanmar.

Minister: Well taking into account the fact that up to now, there has been no timetable to the seven-step roadmap, for the first time, we have a date. That is a plus. Of course, we wish it will be sooner but well, we can't always have our wishes.

Q: Is the scepticism also the possibility that this date or the dates could change again?

Minister: I think as of now, let us take them at their word. Instead let us suggest that the process itself be one which is credible, be one which is independently verified.

Q: Minister, I'm from Asahi Shimbun. Can I ask you if Myanmar Foreign Minister says that if Aung San Suu Kyi can participate in the general elections?

Minister: We did discuss that. He was quite clear that in the new Constitution a Myanmar citizen who has a foreign husband who has children not citizens of Myanmar would be disqualified, as it was in the 1974 Constitution. So he suggested to us that these eligibility criteria will carry forward into the new Constitution. We did express our views on this that it is not in keeping with the times, that certainly such a provision will be very odd in any other country in ASEAN. But this is their own country, this is their own history and what can we do about it.

Q: Minister, basically what is your scepticism on the whole process? You stated several Ministers, can we find out your own scepticisms?

Minister: We have been at this for many years at every ASEAN Meeting and we have been disappointed many times before but we should not be driven to despair so when something positive has happened, we should not because of our past history just dismiss it. I will say that there are positive elements and let's recognise those positive elements for what they are.

Q: When will Mr Gambari visit Singapore? Is he, can you tell us what is he here for and would he be meeting with...

Minister: No, he's on another round of regional consultations, I believe he's in China now. He will be visiting Jakarta after that and then he will be coming down to Singapore and I will be meeting him. Thank you very much.

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