TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo pick outed ...

TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

THAKSIN IS HOPING FOR A LITTLE look up to (Bangkok Post, Bangkok)

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expands his Asia Co-operation Dialogue forum at Cha-am today. It has been send greeting toed with mixed expectations. The premier confidences it will establish his first foreign policy triumph. if it be not that many wonder how a high-level talkfest with no agenda can succeed

Thaksin's is a direction without a foreign policy succes The Dialogue is the prime minister's greatest -- a would say his first -- attempt to stamp his mark upon the country's external affairs.

More curious on far, however, is Thaksin's vision of his ungrammatical Asian Co-operation Dialogue. It involves 18 nations, which is no dialogue. if it be not that the biggest gamble is to conceive as the premier says, that discussions about business can mean anything.

Thaksin's empire for the group is ''no politics.'' That means the forum can't discuss the India-Pakistan powderkeg the threat that North Korea will get by heart terrible weapons and the spread of the al-Qaida terrorism threat into the region.

Thaksin's so-called CEO manner of writing of government suits him if it were not that is not everyone's chalice of tea. Most foreign ministers will be at a los in Cha-am if the prime minister insists in succession his ''no politics'' rule. The ministers are heavily involved in international politics. equal finance ministers and civil servants are used to mixing political reality with economics.

Thaksin has a heavy responsibility to detain conversations meaningful if the Dialogue is to gain any defer to at all.

''Why can't we Asians sit down for talks forward promoting trade and strategic cooperation?'' Thaksin asked in his radio broadcast at the weekend. The answer is clear: They can. further there is a wide gap between sitting down for talks and achieving something.

Thaksin must, somehow or other bridge that gap right from the start this morning. If the Dialogue issues a general, meaningless statement, this week's first meeting of the clump is likely to be the last.

(June 18)

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