Asian leaders reject call for Burma sanctions

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial, posted on Forbes) - Asian leaders on Wednesday again ruled out punishing military-run Myanmar with sanctions despite its bloody crackdown on dissent, saying their influence over the junta was negligible.

Southeast Asian nations plus their six regional dialogue partners, at the end of a summit here, also said punitive measures would only reinforce the junta's isolation and would not speed up the process of democratic reforms.

'We have not been in favor of sanctions on Myanmar -- neither any of the ASEAN countries, nor any of the Asian countries,' host Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at a closing press conference.

'Our influence on Myanmar is negligible. Our trade with them is negligible,' he said of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which met here earlier this week before Wednesday's wider East Asia Summit talks.

Lee said that among the 10-nation bloc, only Thailand had significant trade with Myanmar -- in the form of natural gas imports much needed by Bangkok.

ASEAN has come under increasing international pressure, especially from the United States and the European Union, to rein in its errant member and punish it for September's violence.

Myanmar sent this week's summits into disarray when it refused to allow UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari to brief the Asian leaders on the situation in the former Burma -- forcing ASEAN into an embarrassing last-minute cancellation.

But Lee described Myanmar's intransigence as 'one of the growing pains and the roadblocks which we have to deal with as a new and growing organisation.'

'It is not easy to resolve... it is something which we have confronted, discussed and will have to take in our stride,' he added.

The East Asia Summit brings together the ASEAN bloc with Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and China -- Myanmar's close ally, which Lee said would never condone sanctions.

'China is not going to agree. They have made their position quite clear,' he told reporters.

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