Roll with the punches, Rice tells ASEAN host

Enlarge Photo U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice smiles as she exits a bilateral meeting with Japan...

Wed, Jul 23 12:56 PM

By Bill Tarrant

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With almost no political opposition, high economic growth, and nary a worry about natural disasters, Singapore leads a largely trouble-free existence.

But when the 10-member Association of South East Asian nations set up tent in the city state, host Singapore suddenly had a caravan of crises on its hands.

Thailand and Cambodia are in a military standoff on their border that is testing ASEAN's mettle as a newly formed economic and political bloc.

Spiralling food and fuel prices have unleashed double-digit inflation rates in some member countries, sparking worries of a new Asian financial crisis.

Foreign ministers from the six countries taking part in North Korea nuclear diplomacy are meeting on the sidelines of ASEAN. And Myanmar is maintaining its usual truculence over ASEAN's pleas for it to reform.

So when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo how it all was going, he sounded a bit like Eeyore, the pessimistic horse in Winnie the Pooh.

"Under the circumstances, not too bad," he replied when Rice paid a courtesy call on him on Wednesday. "We have been having a series of meetings but quite good. The ASEAN construction is coming along quite nicely -- moving from crisis to crisis."

Rice replied diplomatically: "It is a good thing to have an organisation like ASEAN under the circumstances.

"I think it has become really a place where people can rally and try to solve problems, and sometimes the institutions roll as they are having to respond to circumstances, but I think you are doing a good job." Yeo gave her a wan smile.

Underlining the fact that this ASEAN meeting is no fun and games, Singapore has cancelled the annual ASEAN post-conference dinner skit.

The traditional night of spoofs and stage acts -- Russia's foreign minister came to one as Darth Vader, while Japan's once played Dick Tracy -- was scrapped because some delegations were taking the fun too seriously, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters this week.

Some delegations were keeping the scripts secret and sometimes rehearsing "in the bathroom trying to outwit each other", he said.

Journalists covering the ASEAN meetings are giving Singapore, which keeps a tight grip on its own national media, headaches as well. The ASEAN organising committee issued a stern rebuke on Wednesday to journalists complaining that delegations "have been swarmed by the media" in the lobby of the Shangri-La Hotel.

"In one instance, a senior member of a visiting delegation was accidentally hit with a video camera by a photojournalist, while in another, a child was almost trampled on by a group of media personnel chasing some delegates into a lift," its said.

(Additional reporting by Sue Plemming)

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