Leaders from Asia and Europe pledged on Saturday to tackle everything from climate change to terrorism but dodged calling for the release of Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of their two-day summit.
Leaders from 25 European and 13 Asian nations did not mention the Nobel peace laureate's name or that of her party, which won elections by a landslide in 1990 in a victory ignored by the military, in a chairman's statement at the end of the Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Hanoi.
"This is typical of multilateralism when many, many countries are involved," said Carl Thayer, professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, when asked why Suu Kyi wasn't mentioned in the statement.
"No one's offended, they all go home," he said.
Burma's grim human rights record and its detention of Suu Kyi overshadowed the summit, where Myanmar was among 13 nations admitted to the club on Thursday, the same day the European Union said it would impose stricter sanctions on Rangoon.
The statement from the chairman, Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, called for a "strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."
But in what appeared to be a veiled criticism of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, the statement said the fight "must be conducted in accordance with the principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter." U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan recently called the war "illegal."
The chairman's statement papered over differences between the regions over Burma.
It called for the participation of all political groups in Burma in a national reconciliation process started by the military rulers but labeled a sham by the West.
ASEM leaders also "looked forward to the early lifting of restrictions placed on political parties in accordance with the assurances given by Myanmar."
Romano Prodi, President of the European Union, said Suu Kyi's name was brought up in closed-door talks attended by Burma's delegates, who noted the importance of reform.
VIETNAM'S DISSIDENTS
The statement's language was in stark contrast to comments from some European leaders before and during the summit in which they demanded Suu Kyi be released and her party allowed to participate in a process to bring more democracy.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 15 years under detention. She was detained again in May last year and remains under house arrest by Burma's military rulers, who have held power in various guises since 1962.
"I think Vietnam decidedly sides with Myanmar," said Thayer, adding that if Suu Kyi had been named in the final statement, "that means you can pick on any dissident in Vietnam."
Vietnam is often accused by Western governments and human rights groups of repressing political and religious freedoms, which Hanoi denies.
During the summit, China lobbied for an end to a 15-year-old arms embargo imposed by the European Union after the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters centerd on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
French President Jacques Chirac said in Hanoi that the embargo made no sense and indicated the EU could lift the ban next year despite U.S. objections. But a diplomat in Hanoi said on Saturday that Chirac's comments had caused dismay among some EU partners, which have yet to make a decision on China's request to lift the ban.
The final statement touched on a grab-bag of other issues but lacked specifics on most, in line with ASEM's reputation as a biennial talk-shop where statements are traditionally non-binding.
ASEM members represent about 60 percent of global trade, a major focus of the grouping. But so is terrorism, crime, weapons proliferation and the environment. Climate change, they said, was among the world's most serious environmental challenges.
The leaders also welcomed a recommendation by an ASEM task force to develop an Asian bond market, which could lead to greater use of other currencies in a region heavily reliant on the U.S. dollar.