Cambodia ASEAN Membership

Spotlight: Awkward Admission
By Michael Vatikiotis
24 December 1998
Far Eastern Economic Review

Cambodia's admission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has proven almost as tortuous a process as the long and still-not-assured process of bringing peace and stability to the country. In the run-up to the December 15-16 Asean summit in Hanoi, it seemed likely that newly installed Prime Minister Hun Sen would fail in his bid to become the 10th and final member of the association. Singapore was strongly opposed, as was Thailand and the Philippines: Their diplomats needed convincing that the new government in Phnom Penh was stable. But a surprise was in store.

Vietnam, supported by Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma and Laos, pushed hard for Cambodia's entry. Not only is Hun Sen an old friend of Hanoi -- dating back to his 1977 defection to Vietnam from the Khmer Rouge -- but also Vietnam wanted to make its mark on Asean history by cementing the unity of Southeast Asia at this meeting, diplomats say. Hun Sen also lobbied hard, telling one senior Western diplomat that if Asean had no trouble admitting Burma, which is governed by an unelected junta, then Cambodia's elected civilian government should not pose a problem.

The impasse was broken by Vietnam's uncompromising style of diplomacy. Emerging from an informal leaders' dinner on the eve of the summit, Vietnamese officials announced that Cambodia was in. Astonished Thai officials denied this was the case. Yet the following day, Indonesia's President B.J. Habibie and Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai both "welcomed" Cambodia as Asean's 10th member in their formal opening speeches. "There was a clear and definite decision by the Asean leaders, meaning that Cambodia is the 10th member of Asean," Vietnam's foreign minister, Nguyen Manh Cam, told a press conference after the first day of the summit.

In reality, it was a fudge, a face-saving compromise that gave Vietnam the role of shepherding in its neighbour as an Asean member -- yet leaving the formal admission to a later and as-yet unspecified date. Cambodian officials are confidently predicting that formal admission will take place early in the new year. But the experience has left a bad aftertaste. Vietnam's forceful manner and protective stance towards Cambodia recalled for many veteran observers an era when Hanoi played tough with Asean mediators in negotiations over its withdrawal from Cambodia, which it invaded in late 1978.