The Hindu : Consensus reached on anti-terror pact?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002

International

International

Consensus reached on anti-terror pact?

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Brunei) JULY 29. Southeast Asian Foreign Ministers removed all the stumbling blocks on Monday to an anti-terrorism pact that would allow the United States to more actively pursue Al-Qaeda-linked extremists throughout the region.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, are expected to sign the agreement during the Asia-Pacific region's largest security meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After a closed conference, senior diplomats said on condition of anonymity on Monday night that differences had been overcome and that the accord should win easy approval.

The agreement would increase U.S. technical and financial aid against terrorism, increase sharing of intelligence information and build closer ties between law enforcement agencies in each nation. It originally stipulated that the United States would act in accordance with "the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and ... non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other states." The new wording, changed at Washington's request, says only that it "recognises" such principles. Indonesia and Vietnam initially objected to the revision, fearing it would dilute sovereignty and allow the United States to send ground troops to the region. ASEAN ministers said military operations would be left to individual countries and Hanoi and Jakarta now say they will support the pact.

Southeast Asia has become a second front in the battle against terrorism, with U.S. troops helping fight Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in the Philippines, and Malaysia and Singapore arresting scores of alleged Al-Qaeda-linked extremists accused of plotting bomb attacks. The region's leaders want to end the perception that their nations are a launching ground for terror. The Singapore Foreign Minister, Shanmugam Jayakumar, said the draft document was "very close to finalisation. It emphasises that ASEAN wants to work with the United States."

The ministers are expected to finalise wording on a proposed accord with China on preventing military clashes in the South China Sea, where many have overlapping territorial claims over the Spratly islands and other areas rich in oil and fisheries.

After three years of unsuccessful ASEAN negotiations on a legally binding "code of conduct" for disputed areas, Malaysia has proposed a non-binding declaration that would have only moral force. ASEAN diplomats said Vietnam was worried the accord would be weak. But after Monday's session, "Vietnam has agreed to accept the code of conduct as a political declaration," the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said. He said it wasn't quite ready to be signed because officials still had to work out details and eliminate wording that might appear legally binding.

— AP

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