In a move coinciding with a crucial meeting in Ireland in April 17 that could have decided the attitude of Europe and Asia toward the country, the Myanmar leadership approved the re-opening of the opposition National League for Democracy’s headquarters in Yangon, apparently as part of the “Road Map” to democracy presented by the military government in 2003.

The step taken at virtually the same time that European and Asian Foreign Ministers were to meet in Tullamore, Ireland, for a regular ASEM gathering with their division over Burma-Myanmar as one of the major elements of their meeting.

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The question had overshadowed European-Asian and especially Southeast Asian relations ever since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had accepted the country as a full member despite the policy of containment and sanctions practiced by Europe and other Western countries.

The questions to be considered by the Ministers in Ireland on Myanmar were to have a profound effect on relations between Asia and Europe, to the point of questioning the future of EU relations with the ASEAN members and the ASEM process. Part of the discussions were to be aimed at paving the way for possible enlargement of ASEM to include the incoming EU members, an issue that many Asian members felt should also be dependent on the participation of Myanmar and other newer ASEAN members such as Cambodia and Laos. But European sources insisted that the EU always participated fully as a group in international gatherings such as the following ASEM Summit in October in Hanoi.

The ASEM meeting in Ireland in April decided to delay any definitive decision on Myanmar pending an examination of the situation and a report to be prepared by a senior official and presented in May at a planned officials’ meeting in Tokyo. This should provide time to clarify the situation and developments on the ground prior to the meeting.

Prior to the meeting in Ireland, both Asians and Europeans made different gestures toward the Myanmar leadership in the hopes of speeding up the process of reform there. The ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong just before the talks told journalists he was assured by the leadership of the country that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released from the house arrest she has been held under for a year since the most recent government crackdown on her and her NLD so that she and her party could participate in the constitutional process. Just a few days earlier, the EU delayed a draft resolution it had prepared for presentation before a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission condemning Burma-Myanmar for human rights abuses.

Ironically, these EU policies were also criticised as being inadequate by Amnesty International recently in a report indicating that despite the sanctions and travel restrictions on Burmese officials to Europe, and the high-profile withdrawals of European companies from Burma, European private business had continued to invest billions in the country in the past decade.

But speaking to journalists before the meeting, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw strongly reiterated the demand for release of the NLD leader and its participation in the reform process.

Nevertheless, Europeans said they did not wish relations with Asia to be held hostage by the long-running dispute any longer.

But many in Europe and in Asia continued to express considerable scepticism about the pace of progress in the country. Many centered on the power of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt in the ruling military hierarchy, with some claiming that he was merely a sophisticated international public relations figure for the more hard-line military in the regime. Others focused more on the actual pace of the road map process and the role to be granted to forces such as the NLD or the ethnic communities in the country in this process.