KL to pursue bid for new secretariat

KL to pursue bid for new secretariat

MALAYSIA: Malaysia will pursue plans to host a new secretariat for a Southeast Asian organization with China, Japan and South Korea despite other countries rejecting the idea, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday.

"We are very disappointed that the other countries are not keen to have the secretariat," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama. "But we will continue to press for it."

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who are meeting this week in Brunei, rejected on Monday Malaysia's bid to host a secretariat for ASEAN Plus Three -- the 10 Southeast Asian countries plus the three Northeast Asian economic powerhouses.

Mahathir sees the group as an embryonic form of the East Asian union he has long advocated to counter the power of the United States and the European Union in economic and political affairs. --AP