Terrorism, trade to top APEC summit in Thailand
Terrorism, trade to top APEC summit in Thailand
Darren Schuettler, Reuters, Bangkok
The scourge of global terrorism after a year of deadly
bombings and rescuing world trade talks will dominate an Asia-
Pacific summit in Bangkok this month, Thailand's chief summit
organizer said on Wednesday.
Tej Bunnag also declared Thailand -- mounting a huge security
operation amid fears it poses a soft target for militants -- is
ready to host the 21 leaders, including U.S. President George W.
Bush, that are due to attend the forum.
"I'm sure a good deal of their time will be taken up with talk
on international terrorism," Tej, head of the APEC 2003
Secretariat, told Reuters.
"Since Los Cabos we have had attacks in Bali and Jakarta, so
international terrorism has been brought to Southeast Asia and we
can feel it directly," he said.
Security has been a dominant issue at Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forums since their 2001 gathering in Shanghai,
a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, and last year's meeting in
Los Cabos, Mexico.
In the past year there have been deadly bombings in the
Philippines as well as Indonesia and threats in other Southeast
Asian countries, including Thailand.
Critics say the region suffers from patchy cooperation in the
fight against terror, but Tej said APEC was working to improve
the gathering and sharing of intelligence.
"I think the level of cooperation has been increasing in its
efficiency," he said, pointing to the August arrest of Hambali,
suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings, in Thailand.
"We wish to strengthen our cooperation in countering
international terrorism. We have been working on this now for a
good two years at every level," he said.
A tight security net will fall on the Oct. 20-21 summit, with
10,000 police and soldiers guarding the main convention center,
the airport and patrolling so-called "soft targets" such as
luxury hotels and Bangkok's famed backpacker row.
Hambali's arrest in a CIA-led operation has raised fears that
Asia's Islamist militants are at work in the country.
Operatives of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network were
believed to be planning an attack on Israeli planes in Bangkok
when they were captured in August.
"Bangkok is as ready as it can possibly be. We have
strengthened all our security arrangements and we hope that
nothing untoward will happen," Tej said.
"The greatest success was the arrest of Hambali and we hope we
have sufficiently disrupted any preparations to disturb law and
order in Thailand or any other Asian country before, during or
after the APEC summit," he added.
"But you never know. You see from news reports perhaps there
are other cells that we have not managed to break up or to
destroy," Bunnag said.
Reviving global trade talks will also be on the minds of Asia-
Pacific leaders after the acrimonious collapse of a recent World
Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
"As that didn't go well, we think the leaders may very well
start off their discussion on that topic," Bunnag said, adding
that Mexican President Vincente Fox may brief the summit on
Cancun and how to get the talks back on track.
A meeting of the WTO's 146 states ended in disarray last
month, leaving the WTO's Doha Round of free trade negotiations in
limbo.
The Cancun meeting failed to bridge deep divisions over
agriculture, particularly the huge subsidies many leading rich
states pay their farmers, and over whether the trading system
needs new rules to roll back red tape and corruption.
Bunnag said other issues likely to be discussed included
energy security, intellectual property rights, and the threat of
HIV-AIDS. Health experts say the global epicenter of the disease
is shifting to Asia, China and Russia from Africa.