The United States is pushing for the six-party nuclear talks, also involving China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas, to be transformed into a permanent Northeast Asian mechanism for resolution of regional security issues. A Russia-led working group on a “Northeast Asia Peace and Security Mechanism” was established following a landmark agreement by the six parties in February 2007, in which North Korea agreed to close its key nuclear plant.

But officials in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are worried such a mechanism could undermine its role in regional security management. ASEAN hosts the biggest official security umbrella grouping in the Asia-Pacific — the 14-year-old ASEAN Regional Forum or ARF comprising the 10 ASEAN states together with 17 others, including the United States, Russia, China, the European Union, North Korea, Australia, India and Pakistan.

“There is a concern in Southeast Asia that such a Northeast Asia forum would actually undermine the ARF,” Muthiah Alagappa, an Asian expert at the Hawaii-based East West Center told a conference in Washington on Friday. “The belief is that if the big powers all get together in another forum, then ARF would be sidelined,” he said.

But Alagappa felt the fears might be misplaced. “I don’t think Southeast Asia should delude itself that ARF is the overall (security) umbrella. The U.S. is a global power, China is a rising power, Japan is the second largest economy, they are going to deal with the issues.”

Aside from the ARF, the ASEAN group has two other key forums where security is often discussed — an annual summit with China, Japan and South Korea, known as the ASEAN plus Three process, and an East Asian Summit involving the 13 countries as well as India, Australia and New Zealand.

“ARF is only part of the regional security architecture, which also consists of the ASEAN plus Three as well as the East Asian Summit,” one ASEAN diplomat in Washington stressed.

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