Southeast Asia-U.S. ink anti-terror pact
Southeast Asia-U.S. ink anti-terror pact
Brian Rhoads Reuters Bandar Seri Begawan Southeast Asia nations signed an anti-terror pact on Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ahead of his visit to Indonesia, seen as the weak link in the region's war on terrorism.
Foreign ministers from the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States pledged to share intelligence, block terrorist funds, tighten borders and make it tougher to use forged travel papers.
ASEAN and the United States view "acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations...as a profound threat to international peace and security, which require concerted action to protect and defend all peoples and the peace and security of the world," the declaration said.
Powell welcomed the pact, saying it would bring Southeast Asia and the United States closer in their bid to counter terrorist networks, but he said it would not open the door to increased U.S. troop levels in Asia.
"It's a political declaration that brings ASEAN and the United States together in a more intimate relationship," he said.
"But I don't anticipate this declaration is a basis for any increased U.S. military presence in the region," he said. The United States already has 100,000 troops in Asia-Pacific.
"We are not looking for new bases or new places to send our U.S. troops," he said.
The signing ended a week of meetings for ASEAN, keen to dispel perceptions Southeast Asia is a hotbed of terrorism.
Powell, who was scheduled to head to Jakarta later on Thursday, said earlier this week he was carrying ideas and initiatives to help President Megawati Soekarnoputri fight militancy at home.
Some Southeast Asian nations have raised concerns Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation of 210 million people, is not doing enough to root out militants in its vast archipelago.
But diplomats say Indonesia is doing more than it appears, and U.S. President George W. Bush has called Megawati to thank her for her efforts in the war on terror.
"I expect to discuss military to military cooperation with the Indonesians tomorrow," Powell said.
The United States cut military ties with Jakarta, including training officers and arms sales, in 1999 when the Indonesian military was implicated in violence in East Timor the territory voted for independence.
The government has to contend with militant groups like Laskar Jihad, which is mainly active in the strife torn Maluku islands where a bomb wounded more than 50 people on Saturday.
Malaysian and Philippine security officials feel Indonesia is the weak link in a three-way pact to fight terrorism they sealed earlier this year.
Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore have arrested several members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional militant group which their intelligence agencies say has ties with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Indonesia has not made any arrests of Jemaah Islamiyah members.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said months of cooperation already under way had shown a clear threat emerging from groups possibly linked to the al-Qaeda network.
"The more this has been investigated, the more concerned we've become about organizations like Jemaah Islamiyah," he said in Brunei.
The highlight at ASEAN was Powell's informal chat with his North Korean counterpart on Wednesday, the highest level contact between Washington and Pyongyang since Bush took office in 2001.
Bush put the brakes on tentative U.S. moves towards detente with North Korea and in his State of the Union address in January declared the communist state part of an "axis of evil".
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun said on Thursday the two sides had agreed to reopen a dialog and Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly would visit the North.
Powell told a news conference he would confer with President Bush before deciding the next step.
After Indonesia, Powell is scheduled to visit the Philippines on leave for Washington on Saturday.