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Statement by the Philippine Foreign Ministers as Chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee
Manila, 6 February 1981 |
I have been authorized by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers to make the following statement :
- At the time when the Non-Aligned movement commemorating in New Delhi the twentieth Anniversary of its first summit conference, the ASEAN Member States consider it an opportune moment to reaffirm their support for the principle of the Non-Aligned Movement and restate their position on the threat to peace and stability in South east Asia which has arisen as a result of the violation of these principles.
- The ASEAN Member States are convinced that the countries in the region possessing with different political and social systems can live together peacefully. They should abide strictly on the principles of the U.N. Charter, in particular the principle of respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and the right of peoples to determine their own future free from external interference, subversion or coercion.
- All countries in the region should share common basic interest in the maintenance of regional peace and stability and in the pursuit of mutual cooperation which are vital conditions for promoting national independence, security and the prosperity and happiness of their respective peoples. It is in this context that ASEAN Member States have opposed Vietnam armed intervention in Kampuchea and its continued military occupation of the former country. The view of ASEAN Member States on the solutions to these problems are well known. They have been held by world opinion, as decisively demonstrated recently at the 35th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
- A number of seemingly reasonable proposals about peace, friendship and cooperation amongst countries in Southeast Asia have lately been made and most recently statements proposing discussions between ASEAN on one side and vactual Laos and the illegal regime of Hang Samrin on the the These proposals hale presenting a seemingly conciliatory approach to the problem, ignore the root cause of the problem the blatant breach in Kampuchea of the fundamental principles of the Non-Aligned Movement and the principles of the U.N. Charter.
- The ASEAN States find these proposals unacceptable. Not only these proposals are misleading in character, they also seek to justify and perpetuate the continued Vietnam military occupation of Kampuchea and to deny the right of the people of Kampuchea to determine their own future free from outside interference and coercion. They also disregard world opinion as expressed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and 1980, when a large majority of Members of the Non-Aligned Movement made known their clear stand in opposition to Vietnam's military intervention in Kampuchea and their continued military occupation of the country.
- The governments of ASEAN Member States remain committed to these U.N. resolution which call upon all the parties to the conflict and other interested parties to join in the search for a comprehensive peaceful solution to the Kampuchea issue through an international conference. Any proposal which mores the call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Kampuchan territory and the exercise of the rights of Kampuchean people to determine their own future, from outside interference, subversion and coercion, defies world opinion and cannot form a basic for a durable solution of the Kampuchean problem and the establishment of lasting peace and stability in Southeast Asia.
- In the interest of their on peoples and of the region on the occasion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Non Aligned Moment, the ASEAN Member States call upon Vietnam to respect world opinion as clearly expressed in the United Nations and join in the search for a comprehensive political solution to the Kampuchea. problem through a U.N. sponsored international conference. The ASEAN Member States reaffirm their readiness to participate in all constructive efforts to seek . solution in accordance with, the U.N. resolution 35/6.
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