KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 (Bernama) — Asean dialogue partners Japan and China are confident that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will lead Asean towards a stronger bloc with Malaysia’s assumption of the Asean Chairmanship this year.
Japan’s Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Makio Miyagawa said Malaysia was expected to take a leading role to strengthen the unity of the 10-member countries for more prosperity in the region.
And, Japan would definitely play its part to support Malaysia’s chairmanship starting Jan 1, including implementing the commitments it made during the Japan-Asean commemorative Summit meeting held in Tokyo in December 2013, he told Bernama recently.
“We expect our Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and several ministers to visit Malaysia this year to attend Asean-related meetings. We would like to utilise those opportunities to strengthen our bilateral relations in various fields,” he said.
Miyagawa also noted that as Asean chairman, Malaysia was expected to cultivate the will of its members for solidarity towards realising the Asean Community (AC) 2015.
The envoy believed Malaysia’s success depended on the solidarity of three determinants of the AC, namely economic, political and diplomatic.
According to him, on the economic field, the grave challenge was how member countries could address growth gap.
As for the political arena, he said the challenge related to the degree of extent, (which) countries in this region could reduce restrictions on the application of democratic rules at the sacrifice of internal stability risks.
“On the diplomatic front, the challenge should be to what extent countries in Asean could trust each other,” he said.
Meanwhile, China Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Huang Huikang said Malaysia’s chairmanship was a historical moment for both the country and Asean as 2015 would see the regional body enter a new phase.
Huang said Malaysia had the responsibility to implement Asean’s plan of action in order to achieve the AC blueprints on political security, economy and socio-culture.
He added that it would also be a challenging year for Malaysia as the responsibilities in charting the post-2015 vision for Asean lay on its shoulders as chair.
However, he was confident that Malaysia will make great contributions to Asean’s future that it could count on China’s continued support for the country to take a proactive and constructive leading role as Asean Chair.
Asean and Japan dialogue relations were formalised in March 1977 with the convening of the Asean-Japan Forum while China became Asean full dialogue partner in 1996.
— BERNAMA
