The 10-member ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. They are joined by Japan, China and South Korea in the ASEAN Plus Three talks. This is the 13 member Asian cover.

The East Asia Summit involves these 13 plus Australia, New Zealand and India.

Then comes the ARF - Asean Regional Forum -  that includes these 16 and Canada, North Korea, Russia, the U.S., the EU and others - so here we get the whole Eurasian world with the addition of the US and Canada, and with the exclusion of Africa, Latin America and the Small Island States.

The ASEAN Regional Forum will meet in Singapore on this Thursday - on Thursday - July 24, 2008.

The series of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is held annually in the summer to prepare for the leaders’ Summit later in the year that will focus mainly on food and security, disaster management, economic conditions and climate change issues, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said in Tokyo.

The ARF now will place specific emphasis on security issues, particularly disaster relief, counterterrorism, maritime security, and nonproliferation and disarmament, according to the officials.

The whole onion reminds us of what went on under the cover of the runnup to the Hokkaido G8 meetings earlier this month. This time, the Summit will include only the 13 States that amount to the 11 Asian States including India and the auxiliaries from Australia - New Zealand. This Summit will leave out the TransAtlantic party goers.

Breakthrough on N. Korea nukes unlikely during Bush administration.
Further breakthroughs with North Korea on the issue of nuclear disarmament will most likely have to wait until the next U.S. president’s administration. Not only are incentives or deterrents increasingly unlikely options for U.S. President George W. Bush, who has six months left in office, but it is doubtful that North Korea will want to negotiate any long-term understanding on the eve of a new presidency. Los Angeles Times  (7/10)  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/…

David Ignatius: Iran’s answer is “maybe.”
Iran’s mixed messages on nuclear disarmament signal the central animating debate in Iranian politics: pragmatic and hard-line camps divide Tehran while compromise has won popular support. The Washington Post (7/10) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

 U.S., India nuclear deal faces time crunch, uncertainty.
India believes it has the political support necessary to move ahead with U.S. President George W. Bush’s proposed nuclear deal, but the need to gain approval from international organizations makes it unlikely U.S. legislators will take up the issue before the end of the legislative calendar — and Bush’s presidency. It is unclear how committed either of Bush’s potential replacements would be to closing the deal. Google/Associated Press (7/10)  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjHnP…

You can now register online for Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2008 by visiting  http://www.carbonexpo.com.au

The event boasts a “cutting edge” speakers programme, workshops and Trade Fair and will be attended by a diverse range of businesses including;

·                      energy providers and other significant industries with corporate abatement strategies
·                      carbon offset providers
·                      carbon market consultants
·                      carbon brokers and exchanges
·                      legal advisers
·                      banking and financial institutions
·                      technology providers
·                      suppliers of energy efficient & ‘clean-tech’ products
We look forward to seeing you there.

Fiona Wain      Tony Beck
CEO - EBA      Chairman AETF

On behalf of the Organising Committee

For further information please contact;
Liz Symmons
Carbon Market Expo Australasia Secretariat
 liz.symmons at astmanagement.com.au
 http://www.carbonexpo.com.au

Saturday, July 5, 2008 about the G8 SUMMIT 2008

Space monster attack to upstage worldly woes at G8?

SAPPORO (Kyodo) -  A science-fiction movie targeting the Group of Eight summit next week in Toyako, Hokkaido, will debut in the prefecture’s theaters Saturday, allowing a beast from outer space to wreak havoc on world leaders.

Cinematic relief: Girara, a monstrous beast from outer space, wreaks havoc on Sapporo in a scene distributed from the movie “Girara no Gyakushu” (”Girara Strikes Back”), which debuts Saturday ahead of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido.
The movie, “Girara no Gyakushu” (”Girara Strikes Back”), is a remake of the 1967 movie “Girara” but with a contemporary parody touch. In the plot, Girara attacks Sapporo while the G8 leaders meet in Toyako. The summit then changes its agenda to contemplate steps to stop Girara, according to the movie’s official Web site.

The movie also includes a scene where the Japanese prime minister, Sanzo Ibe, takes sick leave from the summit after suffering from a bowel problem. Then the G8 chair is taken over by Ibe’s predecessor, Junzaburo Oizumi.

Another scene involves an attempt by a “dictatorial state in the north” to fire a Potedong-55 nuclear missile at the monster.

Following the early release in Hokkaido, the movie will show nationwide starting from July 26.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, crossed the Street from the UN to the Asia Society building, after a hard day at the UN and on the eve of his trip to Japan - China - Korea - Japan on which we wrote in our two articles of June 28, 2008.

We also mentioned there his 11:30 a.m. 10 minutes press conference, pre-announced - “Briefing to the Press before his departure to Northeast Asia” -  but stake-out style, that was reported by Inner City Press, including the complaining journalists opinion that a sit-down press conference would have been more appropriate. Anyway, there was a promise by the Secretariat that such a Press Conference will happen upon his return.

At the Asia Society, the meeting was opened by Chairman of the Board, Mr. James (JIM) McDonald, who is the President and CEO of Rockeffeler & Co., Member of the Council on Foreign Affairs, Chair of the Audit Committee of NYSE Euronext He flatly stated in his first substantial sentence that Asia, and NE Asia in particular, are important to the future of the US.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, a Korean,  obviously spoke many times to the Korea Society - this is his second appearance before the Japan Society - but first time before a joint audience of both these societies. The event is of particular interest as by coincidence it happens on the day North Korea submitted its declaration of the nuclear programs and the US has announced the de-listing of North Korea. Mr. McDonald thus expressed the hope that the day points to a future of a good public treaty for reconciliation including bilateral agreements N. Korea - Japan and new N. Korea - S. Korea relationship. He looks at a future of Japan-Korea with great opportunities, and a trilateral US involvement.
Also, the upcoming trilateral Summit China-Japan-Korea is of major interest on topics like Climate Change - a topic that has driven us to two camps - “those that pollute and those who suffer.”

Japan Society Chairman, Jim McDonald, then introduced Mr Evans Revere, the President and CEO of The Korea Society in New York City. He came to this position after 35 years with US Government. He is recognized as the leading Department of State Asia expert; held every position on Asia within State, and held Ambassadorial rank in many Asian capitals including Seoul and the handling of the 1998 - 2003 Korea issues. He is also with the Council on Foreign Relations, and was charged this evening with introducing Mr. Ban Ki-moon who then proceeded with his points:

“Our Common interests and our common humanity, through the UN, can provide us with the tools to address global issues - Japan and the Republic of Korea can address together the food crisis, the energy crisis and the climate change problem.” He pointed at the need to remove subsidies from agriculture in developed countries and free funds for investment in developing countries’ agriculture. Developed countries must lead under the “Common & Differentiated responsibilities principle on climate change. He looks indeed at Japan & Korea for leadership by the time of Poznan this December. He even pointed at specifics:

- New financial mechanisms for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries,
- Low carbon technologies for developing countries.
- one sixth of world population suffer from treatable diseases.

So, Japan and Korea have to act here - particularly in Africa - with credibility and effectiveness.

NE Asia is a region that begins to work together - thus the Japan, Korea, China trilateral Summit. Those three are part of the 6 Party talks of the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. McDonald asked: What Should We Do About Energy?

A: There must be outside arrangements. He was able to talk on this with Saudi Arabia. The “unusual” high price of oil affects all our life, including food price and the MDGs. He obtained from the Saudis an increase of production promise when he suggested to them what these high price do to the economy in general and to their own financial interests.

Mr. Evans Revere asked: about the “architecture” of Security. China a well as the US, can take on the regional and global challenges?

A:  NE Asia is the only region that has no multi-lateral cooperation as we have a very divided situation. If we are able to address properly the N. Korea nuclear issue, via the 6 Party solution, we might be able to find solutions on other topics

Questions from the floor:

Harry Langer asked: Can a way be found for restricting Sovereign funds to lending and not to investing?

A: As UNSG, I cannot deal with that issue but other financial institutions could.

Q: Can WTO  persuade the rich from trade distorting policies?

A: I urged that European and US companies reconsider agricultural subsidies. Expedite Doha talks. Some countries have export bans on food commodities or import subsidies.

Q: The role of Civil Society?

A: Civil Society contributed to peace and security.

Pincas Jawetz asked for www.SustainabiliTank.info about the fact that Korea, an OECD country, has no obligations under the Kyoto Protocol - no commitments whatsoever. As the UNSG will be talking on his trip about climate change regime issues, will he raise this point with the Korean Government?

A: I am glad that Korea gets rich - I do not know - but I am not going to advise them what to do. It will not do me any good. The common and differentiated responsibilities principle is very important. Things must be viewed from this angle. { I do not consider that the UNSG answered my specific question which goes to the essence of what kind of a climate change just regime. The fact is that Korea is not poor anymore, it is a member of the OECD, and everything else he said puts it in league with Japan - at least as the younger economic brother of Japan, so why should Korea get away with treatment allowed for developing countries, when it has already become a rather developed country?}

At the end, Mr. McDonald asked the UNSG if he is ready to be again a guest when he returns from this trip. The answer was YES! So we will wait with further questions for this future event.

Bush steps back from Axis of Evil to reward North Korea.
By Leonard Doyle in Washington for The Independent of London.
Friday, 27 June 2008

AP shows a photo of Missiles occupy pride of place during a massive military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army.

Related Article - Rupert Cornwell: A triumph of realism and pragmatism over neo-conservatism.

In the twilight of his troubled presidency, George Bush has brought the isolated state of North Korea in from the cold with a promise to remove the country he once truculently described as part of the “Axis of Evil” from a terror blacklist, opening the way for eventual diplomatic relations.

It was an abrupt reversal for Mr Bush, who once said he “loathed” North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, whom he described as a “pygmy”. Gone was the President’s earlier fighting talk of forcing Pyongyang to the negotiating table. Instead, he confirmed he would remove it from America’s list of states that sponsor terrorism, and lift sanctions. North Korea was added to the list in 1987 after it destroyed a South Korean airliner, killing all 115 aboard.

The deal calls for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme in return for food aid and other assistance desperately needed by the impoverished country. And in a sign of its good faith, to be carried live on television, it will today demolish the cooling tower of the already disabled Yongbyon nuclear reactor, 60 miles from the capital, Pyongyang. Diplomats and TV networks from the US, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia will witness the largely symbolic act.

“This can be a moment of opportunity for North Korea,” said President Bush, “If it continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community.”

Yesterday’s breakthrough marks a setback for the President’s hard-line Republican allies, notably Vice-President Dick Cheney. It follows months of infighting in Washington aimed at sabotaging the diplomatic breakthrough and represents a new realism about the limits of the President’s power as he prepares to leave the international stage.

His announcement followed North Korea’s long-delayed declaration of the details of its secret nuclear programme, its ambassador to Beijing, Choe Jin Su, handing the 60-page declaration to Wu Dawei, China’s lead negotiator in the six-nation talks. Great importance was being attached to information about plutonium from the North Korean plant at Yongbyon. The regime is believed to have made enough plutonium for six bombs.

“I do think it’s important to note that if we can verifiably determine the amount of plutonium that has been made; we then have an upper hand in understanding what may have happened in terms of weaponisation,” the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice said, in Kyoto, Japan, for a meeting of the G8.

Officials said the North Korean document fell far short of the complete accounting of its nuclear activities and nuclear proliferation efforts around the world that Washington first demanded. Stephen J Hadley, the US national security adviser, expressed confidence that North Korea would fill in gaps in its declaration on alleged uranium enrichment and nuclear proliferation.

Mr Bush said the US would respond to North Korea, “action for action”, and lift trade restrictions. In 45 days, it would end its listing of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, addressing a key North Korean demand. “Today we have taken a step toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula,” he said. Lifting sanctions on North Korea under the Trading with the Enemy Act, (which dates from the First World War) will leave Cuba as the only nation subject to those sanctions.

But Mr Bush also warned that if North Korea failed to continue down the disarmament path it would face “consequences”. “We remain deeply concerned about North Korea’s human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programmes and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbours,” he said.

North Korea is following the lead of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya two years ago when that country was also removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after being forced to reveal its nuclear ambitions.

The breakthrough became possible only when China – host of the six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear programme – suddenly took a hard line towards its former client after North Korea exploded its first nuclear device in October 2006.

Axis of Evil So Far:

IRAQ

Accused by Bush administration of hiding stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Also accused of clandestine nuclear weapons programme despite UN sanctions. Second Gulf War in 2003 overthrew Saddam Hussein and installed US-led occupation; 150,000 US troops still in Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were found.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea boasted that it had nuclear weapons after breaking out of non-proliferation treaty in 2003. Bush administration also accuses Pyongyang of having a secret uranium enrichment programme, and of spreading nuclear technology to Pakistan and Syria. Negotiations in six-party talks, involving North Korea, its neighbours and the US, produced disarmament deal. North Korea agreed in October last year to fully account for its nuclear programme in return for aid and economic benefits.

IRAN

Accused by Bush administration of working on nuclear weapons under cover of a civil energy programme, which Iran denies. UN sanctions have failed to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment. Diplomacy involving three EU states plus US, China and Russia trying to bring Iran back to negotiating table. But Israel threatens unilateral air strikes and US says all options are open.

—————

Rupert Cornwell: A triumph of realism and pragmatism over neo-conservatism.
Friday, 27 June 2008, The Independent.

If the declaration by North Korea is indeed a breakthrough in more than a decade of US efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, it has been achieved by two things George Bush once derided – patience and multilateral diplomacy.

Barely six years ago, North Korea was famously lumped with Iran and Iraq into Mr Bush’s “axis of evil”, while the then Secretary of State Colin Powell had been publicly rapped across the knuckles by the President for daring to suggest Washington would continue the Clinton policy of engagement with the reclusive communist regime.

Now the White House is hailing the declaration – albeit six months late and apparently lacking details on at least two key issues – as a success sufficient to warrant removing North Korea from the US terrorism blacklist. So what happened?

First, it is triumph of realism and pragmatism, embodied by General Powell’s successor Condoleezza Rice and Washington’s chief Korea negotiator Christopher Hill, over the neo-conservative ideology that held sway in Mr Bush’s first term. The lesson has been learnt the hard way – after the war in Iraq, whose unintended consequences have been a big increase in the influence of Iran, and a huge blow to American’s reputation. At the same time, Washington’s long indifference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict only made matters worse in the region’s other festering crisis. Second, like all presidents approaching the end of their second term, Mr Bush is a lame duck, concerned above all else with his “legacy”. In the Middle East, he has nothing to boast about. But with this apparent step towards a resolution of the stand-off with North Korea, he may claim to be a peace-maker who has made the world a slightly safer place. But he has had to pay a price.

Mr Bush insists, rightly, that the declaration is the “beginning, not the end, of the process”. But he has had little choice but to take what he is being given by a country that has broken a host of nuclear undertakings in the past – and may be doing so again.

The account handed over by North Korea to China apparently does not address charges Pyongyang is secretly running a parallel uranium enrichment programme. Nor does it deal with the suspected nuclear installation Syria was building, allegedly with the North’s assistance, until the Israeli air strikes last September.

 From:    announcement at koreasociety.org

The DPRK Today  -  with John Everard, British Ambassador to the DPRK.

Friday, July 11, 2008
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM ♦ Registration and Reception
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ♦ Luncheon and Presentation

The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City
(Building entrance on SW corner of 57th Street and Third Avenue)

The talk will be conducted under “Chatham House” rules:
Please refrain from using cameras or recording devices during the program.

$20 for members, $25 for nonmembers.
For more information or to register for the program, contact Patrick Clair at (212) 759-7525, ext. 328 or email

John Everard, Great Britain’s ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since February 2006, will discuss the current situation in North Korea, changes in its society and the problems that the country faces.

About the Speaker

John Everard has served as Great Britain’s ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since February 2006. He began his career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1979, dealing with issues related to China and Taiwan. After serving in the political and commercial sections of the British embassies in Vienna and Santiago, Chile, Everard was tasked to set up Britain’s new embassy in Belarus in 1993. Following the Dayton peace agreement in 1995, he led the OSCE team implementing elections in Bosnia. Then, from 1996 to 1998, he worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on issues related to West Africa, where he was closely involved in the international efforts to respond to the coup in Sierra Leone. Everard returned to Asia in 1998 to head the political section of the British embassy in Beijing. In 2001 he was appointed as Britain’s ambassador to Uruguay.
Everard studied French, German and Chinese at Emmanuel College Cambridge from 1975 to 1978, and then studied Chinese history and economics at Beijing University from 1978 to 1979. He holds an MBA from Manchester Business School.

Cooperative Spirit Emerges at Whaling Commission Meeting.

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 24, 2008 (ENS) - With whaling nations and their allies on one side and pro-conservation nations on the other, annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission have been increasingly gridlocked and acrimonious. But today at the 60th annual IWC meeting in Santiago there was a breakthrough. The 81 member governments agreed on a new way of dealing with the issues that separate them. After intensive discussions among officials during the last week, including a closed door commissioners’ meeting on Sunday all nations seem prepared to make the new approach work.

First, the IWC has agreed to change the rules of engagement under which meetings operate, in the hope of developing an atmosphere more conducive to change.

“This a major step forward - for the first time in 20 years we have agreed to a concrete process to talk about the substantive issues that divide us,” said New Zealand Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick in Santiago.

The crux of the problem is that commercial whaling has been prohibited throughout the world’s oceans for the last 20 years, but in reality it has continued under the guise of scientific whaling by Japan.

“Members of the Commission have always known what these issues are, but until now have never agreed to sit down together and try to find a way out of the impasse,” Chadwick said.

“My meeting yesterday with Peter Garrett, the Australian Minister for the Environment, reconfirmed both countries’ determination to find a way to end scientific whaling,” said Chadwick. “New Zealand and Australia share very similar views on whale conservation and we will continue to work closely at the IWC to ensure a constructive meeting that maximizes the protection of whales.”
The IWC meeting is chaired by Dr. William Hogarth, formerly head of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, who now chairs the IWC.

The meeting opened Monday with speeches of welcome by Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alejandro Foxley and Chilean Minister for the Environment Ana Lya Uriarte.

Outside the meeting, Uriarte and more than a thousand Chileans formed a human whale sculpture, calling for the protection of whales.

Today, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and ministers from Chile, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica gathered at Quintay on the coast, to witness the declaration of the new marine sanctuary in the Gulf of Corcovado. Establishing this new sanctuary demonstrates Chile’s commitment to marine protection.

The IWC Scientific Committee reported on the status of Antarctic minke whales, North Pacific common minke whales, Southern Hemisphere humpback whales, Southern Hemisphere blue whales and small populations of bowhead, right and gray whales.

There was positive evidence of increases in abundance for humpback, blue and right whales in the Southern Hemisphere, although they remain at reduced levels compared to their pre-whaling numbers.

Special attention was paid to the status of the endangered western North Pacific gray whale, whose feeding grounds coincide with oil and gas operations off Sakhalin Island, Russian Federation. The population numbers only about 120 animals and although there is evidence that it has been increasing at perhaps three percent per year over the last decade, any additional deaths, for example in fishing gear as has recently occurred, put the survival of the population in doubt, the Scientific Committee said.

The commission agreed to work together to try to mitigate human threats to this endangered population and there was praise for Japanese efforts to reduce bycatches in its waters.

Ship strikes and entanglements are a threat to the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population which numbers around 300. The commission agrees again that mortality due to human causes should be reduced to zero as soon as possible.

A new report submitted to the IWC Scientific Committee by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, appears to confirm warnings from international researchers and conservationists that Japan is underreporting the number of whales it kills each year.

“The government of Japan is unable to regulate the sale of whale meat in the country,” said Naoko Funahashi, director of IFAW Japan and co-author of the report. “DNA testing proves more fin whales are being sold in Japan than the government admits having killed.”

Fisheries target larger fish where available and marine mammals consume mainly smaller fish and tiny crustaceans such as krill, the report points out.

“Making whales into scapegoats serves only to benefit wealthy whaling nations while harming developing nations by distracting any debate on the real causes of the declines of their fisheries,” Pauly said.

Also presented to the IWC Scientific Committee was an analysis of the interaction between whales and commercial fisheries in northwest Africa. The model, funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program, shows no real competition between local or foreign fisheries and great whales.

The third report is a review of the scientific literature originating from Japan and Norway - the two countries most strongly promoting the idea that whales pose problems for fisheries. Funded by WWF, the study found flaws in much of the science and concluded that “where good data are available, there is no evidence to support the contention that marine mammal predation presents an ecological issue for fisheries.”

Dr. Susan Lieberman of WWF said, “These three reports provide yet more conclusive evidence that whales are not responsible for the degraded state of the world’s fisheries. It is now time for governments to focus on the real reason for fisheries decline - unsustainable fishing operations.”

World Economic Forum: “Dire Situations Call for Bold Measures.”

The World Economic Forum on East Asia wrapped up this week with Ahn Ho-Young, South Korea’s Deput  Minister for Trade, saying it was dominated by “the three F’s”: food, fuel and finance.

A forum survey of the 55 business leaders who attended the two-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, showed that an overwhelming 81% voted for “addressing growing global concern over environmental challenges such as climate change and water” as the top issue facing Asia.

Also of concern were “preventing political and economic instability linked to rising food and energy prices” and “managing the social, environmental and infrastructural implications of rapid urbanization.”
The survey also revealed that the price of rice had more than tripled in Thailand since January. During the same time, diesel prices have risen over 26% in Vietnam.
Water is another issue rising to the fore, with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board, Nestle, Switzerland, repeating his dire warning: “We will be running out of water long before we run out of oil.”

He lamented that more of the world’s GDP was not being allocated to water: “One out of every five children is dying every 20 seconds because we haven’t been able to solve the problem of clean water today.”

Mr. Ho-Young (South Korea)  urged Asia to do three things: “First, it is important for Asian countries to maintain their open market policies which will enable us to maintain the momentum of economic growth,” he said. Second, he urged Asian countries to pay more attention to the economic and socia