Thailand to join regional antiterrorism coalition
Thailand to join regional antiterrorism coalition
Associated Press, Phnom Penh
Thailand says it will join Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in forming an anti-terrorism coalition, broadening a security alliance in a region regarded as a terrorist breeding ground.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai will sign an agreement on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit being held this week in Phnom Penh, Tej Bunnag, a senior Thai diplomat, said on Sunday.
Though all five signatories are part of ASEAN, the security alliance is separate from a joint anti-terrorism declaration that members of the 10-nation regional grouping are expected to sign during their annual meeting on Monday and Tuesday.
Determined to send a clear message that the region is safe for foreign tourists and investors, leaders will discuss expanded cooperation in countering terrorism, including more information sharing and possible military assistance, Thaksin said.
"It is possible that one country could help another country suppress terrorism by force if asked to help," Thaksin said. "But I think the details of such a joint armed operation would need to be worked out between the two nations when that occurs."
"This is another channel of cooperation... We all suffer from terrorism," Tej said.
Under the agreement, member countries are to intensify exchanges of security information. They plan to establish and standardize search-and-rescue operations, create hotlines, share airline passenger lists, strengthen border controls and conduct joint counter-terrorism exercises.
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Lauro Baja said his country would host a meeting in the next few months to set up a committee to oversee the alliance's anti-terror work.
Another Philippine official said Manila's National Security Council has proposed an exercise during that meeting where the countries would try to coordinate efforts to deal with a hypothetical terrorist strike.
Deadly bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines last month have stirred fears of more terrorist attacks in the region, which is increasingly being seen as a new front in the global fight against terrorism.
The other members of ASEAN are Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
Cambodia, which hosts the annual meeting, hopes the summit, the largest international gathering in the country's modern history, will symbolize its return to respected status in the world community after nearly three decades of war, Khmer Rouge revolution and civil conflict.
Potholed streets have been repaved and swept, banners hoisted across boulevards, and many of the city's colonial-era government buildings have been given a fresh coat of paint.
But the state of Cambodia's ill-equipped and under-trained law enforcement agencies has raised concerns about security for the approximately 1,000 delegates gathering in Phnom Penh for the two-day summit.
In addition to the 10 ASEAN nations, leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, India and South Africa will attend, and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has pledged complete safety.
Security was extremely tight near the summit's venue, a glitzy hotel in the city's southwest. Streets were barricaded and police checked even inside wallets and under shoes.
Other main topics to be discussed on the sidelines of the meeting will be North Korea's nuclear weapons program, officials said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will meet with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and South Korean Prime Minister Kim Suk-soo, Koizumi's spokeswoman Misako Kaji said, adding "as its neighbors, China and South Korea would be very much interested in North Korea."
Yutaka Aoki, a spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh, said officials are discussing whether to urge the North stop its nuclear development program. Pyongyang rejected similar demands during talks with Tokyo last week.
The United States on Friday ruled out any talks with North Korea until it dismantles the program that U.S. officials say is capable of producing one or two nuclear weapons.
Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member nations also called on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program last month, adding that economic benefits from the communist country's growing ties in the region depended on it.