China's Wen calls for "new security concept" for Asia at Boao

China's Wen calls for "new security concept" for Asia at Boao forum

Robert J. Saiget Agence France-Presse Beijing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and other Asian leaders called on Sunday for stronger efforts to promote regional economic growth, although they offered differing views over the region's security priorities.

Wen told the opening day of the second annual Boao Asian economic forum that closer economic integration in Asia should lead to a "new security concept" to counter an "unfair and inequitable old international political and economic order".

However, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong warned that better Asian integration should not come at the expense of weaker global ties.

Wen told the two-day conference of some 1,200 government and business leaders and academics on southern China's tropical Hainan Island that peace and development were the most important issues. He cautioned, however, that impediments to regional peace still exist.

"Traditional and non-traditional threats are interwoven and make the security situation a lot more complicated. The unfair and inequitable old international political and economic order remains largely intact," Wen said in a speech carried by China Central Television.

"We should proceed from the larger interests of Asia's development, cultivate a new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation," he said.

Singapore's Goh warned that with the sudden explosion of free trade zones, both bilateral and regional, there was a danger of dividing the world into "Orwellian" trading blocs. George Orwell's novel 1984 portrays a world divided into three warring blocs.

"As Asia deepens regional integration, we must not turn inwards and keep others out," Goh said.

"Economics aside, a world divided into blocs will invite severe geo-political and security repercussions. Political tensions will rise as each region competes for scarce resources like oil. Conflicts may result."

Asia should not forget the economic ties to the United States and the European Union (EU) that had largely spurred dynamic growth in the region, he said.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lamented that security concerns in South and Central Asia were hindering economic integration.

Musharraf said his country had high hopes of stronger integration with the Asian economy, but troubles on his borders were proving to be a hindrance.

"It is an urgent task to enhance comprehensive and integrated development, build complementarity, reinforce Asian values, abate tensions and seek for peaceful resolution to political disputes in Asia," Musharraf told the conference.

Politics and economics cannot be separated, he said, citing the need to seek political solutions for global terrorism, the issues of Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and the Indo-Pakistani dispute in Kashmir.

Pakistan was committed to developing regional growth through organizations such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Economic Cooperation Organization of Central and West Asian Countries, but regional tensions were hampering cooperation, he said.

Also attending the forum were Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmonov, Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho and the vice premiers of Vietnam, Laos and Turkmenistan.

China has hoped to make the Boao Forum, named after the Hainan city where the talks are held, an Asian version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It brings together decision makers and opinion leaders from government, business and academia.

However, the first meeting, in April last year, was widely criticized for poor preparation and accompanying logistical chaos.