Tokyo to host Japan-ASEAN summit

Tokyo to host Japan-ASEAN summit

JAPAN: Japan's government on Friday decided to host a special
summit with the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
in December to mark 2003 as the year of cultural and economic
exchanges between Tokyo and the Asian bloc, the foreign minister
said.

The Japan-ASEAN summit will be held at the government's
guesthouse in Akasaka, central Tokyo, on Dec. 11-12, Foreign
Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said.

The foreign ministry has printed posters for the ASEAN-Japan
Exchange Year 2003, first proposed by Japan's Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi last November, featuring a picture of a smiling
computer-generated young woman as a goodwill envoy.

The annual ASEAN summit is due to be held on the Indonesian
island of Bali in October. China, Japan and South Korea are to
hold separate talks with the 10-member ASEAN as dialog partners.
--AFP

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Aglance-Thailand-wargames
U.S., Thai, Singapore troops begin military exercises against
JP/11/ASEAN

U.S., Thai, S'pore stage wargames

THAILAND: More than 13,000 troops from the United States,
Thailand and Singapore began annual military exercises on Friday
that will focus on anti-terrorism, peacekeeping and civilian
evacuation.

The two-week "Cobra Gold" exercises will be held in several
areas of Thailand, and will include land, sea and air operations.

The exercises, the biggest in Southeast Asia, have been
conducted by the U.S. and Thai armed forces since 1982. In 2000,
Singapore became a full participant after being an observer since
1993.

U.S. Ambassador Darryl N. Johnson said the exercises have
acquired greater importance following suicide attack in Saudi
Arabia this week, as well as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the
United States and last year's bombings in Bali, Indonesia.

The attacks "emphasize the need for the international
community to come together and protect ourselves, our societies,
and our citizens from the menace of terrorism," Johnson said in a
speech at the opening of the exercises. --AP

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi encounters "most serious" protest
JP/11/ASEAN

Suu Kyi encounters protest

MYANMAR: Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi encountered
a pro-junta group of some 300 people protesting her movement as
she arrived in the capital of northernmost Kachin state on
Friday, her party said.

It was the "most serious" incident on this trip so far,
National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman U Lwin said.

The leader is currently on a month-long political tour, the
lengthiest of a number she has made across the country since
being released from house arrest in May last year by the ruling
military junta.

U Lwin said on Friday that Suu Kyi was met by a group of some
300 members of the junta's Union Solidarity Development
Association (USDA) who were carrying catapults and small objects
such as bicycle nuts as she attempted to cross a bridge to
Myitkyina. --AFP