BRUNEI: WAIT AND SEE ON EAS, PREFERS APEC

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000496 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/28/2016 TAGS: PREL ETRD PTER BX SUBJECT: BRUNEI: WAIT AND SEE ON EAS, PREFERS APEC REF: CANBERRA 1461 Classified By: DCM Justin Friedman, reasons 1.5 (b) & (d) ¶1. (C) Foreign Minister II Lim Jock Seng, in a wide-ranging conversation with Ambassador and DCM (septels) on September 21, told us that Brunei had very limited expectations for the East Asia Summit (EAS). Lim said that in shaping the EAS agenda, China was deferring to ASEAN to take the lead. ASEAN, for its part -- both collectively and among individual members -- did not have its act together to drive this initiative. He added that this left the field open for Australia and New Zealand to shape the EAS agenda. Brunei has adopted a "wait and see" approach to EAS, hoping for something useful to come out of it, but approaching the upcoming events with low expectations. ¶2. (C) On regional groupings more broadly, Lim said that the GoB finds APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) the most useful and effective among the plethora of regional groupings. Lim confirmed that the Sultan planned to attend this year's Leaders' Meeting, observing that the Sultan values and enjoys them more than any other regional gathering. Lim continued that Brunei welcomes the inclusion of counterterrorism issues on the APEC agenda as well as in the ARF. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Lim's remarks about Australia's and New Zealand's potential influence on the EAS agenda are particularly interesting in light of Embassy Canberra's comment in reftel that the Australaians have taken a deliberately passive stance in the EAS to date. END COMMENT. SKODON