ASEAN invites U.S., Russia for East Asia Summit from 2011 (Lead)

By Puy Kea and Ko Hirano
     HANOI, Oct. 28, Kyodo - Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Thursday to invite the U.S. and Russian presidents to attend the East Asia Summit starting from 2011, said Vietnam, which currently holds the chair of the 10-member ASEAN.

     U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are scheduled to attend an EAS summit Saturday in Hanoi as observers, where leaders will endorse a plan to include the two countries in the regional forum from next year, increasing the membership to 18.

     ASEAN leaders on Thursday adopted a plan for deeper regional integration in an effort to reduce economic disparities in Southeast Asia and help ASEAN achieve its goal of an economic community by 2015, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said in a press release issued after a one-day meeting.

     The ''Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity'' calls for efforts to improve the region's connectivity in three areas -- physical connectivity such as transport and information communications technology infrastructure, institutional connectivity such as trade and investment liberalization, and people-to-people connectivity such as tourism and education.

     The leaders welcomed ASEAN finance ministers' efforts to establish a regional infrastructure fund to ensure smooth implementation of the ASEAN Connectivity initiative, the press release said.

     The ASEAN leaders were having a working dinner Thursday to exchange views on regional and international issues, indicating that they will touch on issues such as Myanmar, territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea and climate change.

     The leaders may also discuss potential coordination on currency policy given the fact that the currencies of many ASEAN members have risen sharply against the U.S. dollar, a development that could hurt export-driven growth in the region, a member of the Philippines delegation said.

     At the working dinner, the leaders are expected to urge Myanmar's junta to hold general elections slated for Nov. 7 ''in a free, fair and inclusive manner,'' says a draft of a chairman's statement to be issued, according to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, on Friday.

     ''ASEAN encouraged Myanmar to further accelerate progress in the implementation of the roadmap for national reconciliation and democracy including the preparation for the upcoming general elections leading to a constitutional government in Myanmar,'' says the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Kyodo News.

     Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Thursday that ASEAN foreign ministers told Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win on Wednesday that there should be no more other charges against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, expressing hope she will be released from house arrest in mid-November as scheduled.

     '''The immediate release' is not yet certain, but we hope that she will be released because she could be part of the national reconciliation,'' Kasit told journalists on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.

     The ASEAN leaders will agree to try to ensure effective implementation of a 2002 ASEAN-China declaration that calls for ensuring settlement of territorial disputes in the South China Sea diplomatically to avert military conflict, according to the draft statement.

     Some ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines have grown concerned about Beijing's increasing assertiveness in pressing its claims to sovereignty over islands such as Spratlys and Paracels in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

     ''We stressed the need to intensify efforts to ensure the effective implementation of the DOC (Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea) and move toward the eventual conclusion of a regional code of conduct in the South China Sea,'' the draft says.

     ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

(Varunee Torsricharoen contributed to this report)

==Kyodo