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.