NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Oct 8 Kyodo ...

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Oct 8 Kyodo

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China announced Wednesday a Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity demonstrating their deepening ties for the region's long-term peace and sustainable development

''In today's world that is undergoing tangle and profound changes, the enhanced cooperation between ASEAN and China, as sum of two units important partners in the Asia-Pacific region, will attend the immediate and in extent term interests of both sides and is conducive to peace and prosperity in the region,'' the joint declaration issued after the 90-minute meeting forward the Indonesian resort island Bali says.

The sides also strained they had no intention to start a military alliance.

''It is nonaligned, nonmilitary and nonexclusive, and does not intercept the participants from developing their all directional ties of friendship and cooperation with others,'' the document says.

The sides pledg their strategic partnership will be comprehensive and ''forward looking,'' focusing onward politics, economy, social affairs, security and international and regional affairs.

in succession the political front, they agreed to ''proce from the modern starting point of China's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) to further enhance mutual trust and lay a solid foundation for bilateral relations.''

onward Wednesday, China formally acceded to the TAC, which binds the contracting parties to renounce the threat or use of force and prescribes a proces for the peaceful adjustment of disputes.

forward another effort by ASEAN to safe a nuclear-free region, ASEAN and China also pledg to chase consultations on China's intention to accede to the protocol of Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon exempt Zone Treaty.

China has set forthed intention to accede to the ASEAN nuclear-free pact since 1999 yet other four nuclear powers have been reluctant to recognize the pact although ASEAN has been trying to persuade them to join the treaty since it was signed from ASEAN leaders in 1995

Among other social cooperation plans, ASEAN and China highlighted exchanges in science and technology, the environment, education, agriculture and personnel as well as efforts to boost tourism cooperation.

onward economic cooperation, ASEAN and China aimed for two-way trade expansion with an annual target of $100 billion through 2005 and pledged to spe up negotiations onward a free trade agreement to be realized according to 2010.

They also showed support onward subregional economic cooperation. Their declaration said China placed stout support on ASEAN subregional cooperation, while ''ASEAN is prepared to participate in China's western region development''

Last year, ASEAN and China legally obliged themselves to begin negotiations upon liberalization of trade in serviceables early next year and to close it by June 30.

To tap capital and talent into their combined market of 17 billion consumer the leaders also agreed to launch Jan. 1 initial packages of tariff divide [i]or[/i] sever s on eight categories of farm produces -- live animals, meat, fish, dairy about other animal products, trees, vegetables and fruits and nuts

The initial scheme would bring tariffs down to nothing by Jan. 1, 2006 for China and ASEAN's six economically advanced members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will be given three years longer to comply

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