ARF members discuss securing international trade from terrorists
ARF members discuss securing international trade from terrorists
Associated Press, Manila
Asia's largest security bloc and several other nations are
discussing ways to deter terrorists and keep them from using
international trade routes to move explosives and operatives,
according to a document seen on Thursday.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum
(ARF) is trying to make borders more secure, to boost
information-sharing on terrorists and to standardize ways to
monitor travelers, goods and cargo.
"The fight against terrorism requires ... unprecedented
international cooperation," said a draft copy of a statement to
be issued at the forum's annual meeting next month in Cambodia's
capital, Phnom Penh.
Terrorism constitutes a "profound threat to stability, peace
and security" in Asia and beyond, said the document, a copy of
which was seen by The Associated Press.
Governments in the forum would also be urged to back efforts
by the United Nations and other organizations to keep a closer
watch on hazardous materials and to share data on lost or stolen
passports, the document said.
The governments are also being urged to strengthen law
enforcement and intelligence agencies, and to address a lack of
legal structures to prosecute and extradite terrorists.
Cooperation by Southeast Asian governments - under pressure to
shake off perceptions that the region is a terrorist hotspot -
have led to numerous arrests of suspected members of Jamaah
Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked group said to be plotting to use
terror to create an extremist state in the region.
Bomb attacks blamed on Jamaah Islamiyah killed 202 people in
Bali, Indonesia, in October.
The regional forum consists of the 10 Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam.
Its other members are Australia, Canada, China, the European
Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.