Global downturn top ASEAN agenda

Tue, 30 Oct 2001 | Source: AFP

BRUNEI: The global economic slowdown and U.S.-led campaign against terrorism will dominate next week's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, the host ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement on Monday.

The seventh ASEAN summit will be the first meeting of all the Southeast Asian leaders since the September terror attacks in the United States.

Singapore and the Philippines gave their full support to the U.S.-led military strikes in Afghanistan but the region's biggest Muslim nations -- Indonesia and Malaysia -- have criticized the U.S.-led attacks, which have exacted heavy casualties among civilians.

Leaders from the 10-member regional grouping are also expected to hold talks with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea as part of the enlarged ASEAN Plus Three summits that began in 1997. --AFP

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