MALAYSIAN VIEWS ON DECEMBER ASEAN SUMMITS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 001050

SIPDIS

FOR EAP/MTS AND EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2013
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ASEAN BM MY
SUBJECT: MALAYSIAN VIEWS ON DECEMBER ASEAN SUMMITS

REF: KUALA LUMPUR 1024 - DEMARCHE ON BURMA CRACKDOWN

Classified By: Acting DCM Matt Matthews for reasons 1.4 (b and d).


1. (C) Summary: The Embassy collected Malaysian economic
and political views of the December ASEAN summits from the
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and from
the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS),
a government-linked think-tank. According to MITI Deputy
Secretary General Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria, Malaysia expected
the ASEAN Leaders Summit to support the G-20's call for
coordinated action to address the global financial crisis,
and reiterate APEC's call to reject protectionism and to
renew efforts to conclude Doha round. One of Malaysia's key
goals was to see that the ASEAN Leaders agreed to move to
implementation on the ASEAN economic agenda, Rebecca said,
and regional free trade agreement will also be on the agenda,
with emphasis on ASEAN-plus one and ASEAN-plus three deals.
ISIS Assistant Director-General Stephen Leong told us ASEAN
would discuss but not finalize the terms of reference for the
Human Rights Body in the December summit. Leong said
Malaysia welcomed the agreed move to two annual ASEAN
summits, believing the more frequent meetings would make
ASEAN more "results oriented." Malaysia would look for
opportunities to join other ASEAN members to pressure Burma,
Leong said, but would not support aggressive diplomatic
moves. A senior Malaysian Foreign Ministry official
confirmed press reports that Prime Minister Abdullah could
miss the ASEAN summits, and said Deputy Prime Minister Najib
might represent Malaysia. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
Deputy Secretary General Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria told
Econcouns November 25 that Malaysia expected ASEAN Leaders
Summit would generate a statement supporting the G-20's call
for coordinated action to address the global financial
crisis, as well as a reiteration of the APEC Leaders call to
reject protectionism and to renew efforts to conclude Doha
round. The Leaders are also expected to state their support
for expansion of the Asian Bond Fund created during the Asian
Financial Crisis.


3. (SBU) Rebecca said Malaysia was hopeful that the ASEAN
Charter would be ready to sign, and that would impact on the
future structure of ASEAN secretariat. Rebecca thought it
was likely that ASEAN would move to a "two summits," or an
"ASEAN only leaders retreat" and a larger summit format that
could include the various "ASEAN plus" observers to deal with
the expanded agenda covering socio-cultural, political and
economic work. She added that the ASEAN economic blueprint,
the road map and score card process was already in place so
one of Malaysia's key goals was to see that the ASEAN Leaders
agreed to move to implementation on the economic agenda even
though some members like Thailand had yet to sign. ASEAN
needed to sign the intra-ASEAN investment agreement and agree
on an expanded package for services liberalization within
ASEAN.


4. (SBU) Regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) will be on
the agenda, according to Rebecca, including the
trade-in-goods agreement with India, the goods and investment
agreement with China, and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand
FTA. From MITI's point of view, Rebecca said, these were the
priority agreements that required action.


5. (SBU) Beyond the ASEAN-plus one deals, Rebecca said MITI
tended to focus on ASEAN-plus three because it was viewed as
manageable. The Japanese continued to push hard on
energizing the ASEAN plus six, but MITI remained lukewarm.
MITI also considered FTAAP as too difficult and long-term in
nature to deserve much time at the moment, Rebecca said, but
she added that Deputy Prime Minister Najib had taken a
renewed interest in the FTAAP following his attendance at the
APEC Leaders Summit and had already requested MITI to prepare
new briefs on FTAAP and the Trans Pacific Partnership
initiative for his consideration.


6. (SBU) Polcouns received comments on Malaysia's political
views of the ASEAN summits in a November 26 meeting with
Stephen Leong, Assistant Director-General of the Institute of
Strategic and International Studies (ISIS),a
government-linked think-tank that acts as a foreign policy

KUALA LUMP 00001050 002 OF 002


advisor to Malaysian leaders. (Note: Foreign Ministry
officials did not make themselves available to meet on this
subject. End Note.) Leong stated that Malaysia was focused
on the coming into force of the ASEAN Charter, which Kuala
Lumpur viewed as seminal achievement for the regional body.
Malaysia anticipated work on the terms of reference (TOR) for
the Human Rights Body, but Leong stated the TOR would not be
finalized during the December summits; instead, ASEAN would
reach final agreement on the TOR sometime in 2009.


7. (SBU) Leong said that Malaysia welcomed the agreed move
to two annual ASEAN summits, one for ASEAN itself and the
second for the "ASEAN plus" summits. Malaysia believed that
two annual summits would make ASEAN more "results oriented,"
as summit meetings motivated the countries to make progress
on issues and demonstrate achievements. Leong stated that
Malaysia welcomed the U.S. to join the East Asia Summit, and
hoped this would happen in the future.


8. (C) On Burma, Leong said Malaysia would "look for
opportunities to join other ASEAN members, like Singapore and
Indonesia, to put pressure on the Burmese regime," but
Malaysia would not support aggressive diplomatic moves.
Malaysia held a generally positive view of Burma's 2010
political transition plan. Polcouns argued that currently
there was no evidence of any positive political transition in
Burma (reftel).


9. (C) In a November 28 meeting with Polcouns, Foreign
Ministry Senior Under Secretary (Americas, EU) Zainuddin
Yahya confirmed press reports that Prime Minister Abdullah
was considering not attending the ASEAN summits due to
pressing legislative business at home related to Abdullah's
outstanding reform bills. If that is the case, Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Tun Razak likely would represent Malaysia at
the summits, Zainuddin said.
KEITH