ASEAN+8 security forum to push for stronger security cooperation+

BANGKOK, Oct. 2 Kyodo -
Defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus eight
dialogue partners will express their determination to strengthen security
cooperation in order to promote peace in the Asian region at their first
meeting later this month, according to a draft statement obtained Saturday.
At the first ASEAN Defense Ministers-Plus Eight (ADMM+8) meeting in Hanoi on
Oct. 12, the ministers will also agree to establish working groups by experts
on defense and security issues of mutual interest, according to the draft of
the ''Hanoi Joint Declaration.''
However, amid the diplomatic rift between China and Japan over a ship collision
in the disputed East China Sea and escalating tension between China and some
ASEAN members over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea, adoption of the
joint declaration calling for strengthening of security cooperation is expected
to face difficulty.
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie are expected to attend the meeting.
Kitazawa is considering seeking talks with Liang in Vietnam in a bid to mend
strained bilateral ties, government sources said this week. China has suspended
ministerial contacts since Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain
over maritime collisions near the disputed Senkaku Islands early this month.
The draft points out that ''security challenges in the region and in the world
are more complex and transnational in nature, which requires cooperation among
countries in the region.''
It also stresses the importance of establishing the ADMM-Plus as a ''key
component of a robust, effect, open and inclusive region security
architecture'' that would enable the ADMM to cooperate with the eight 'Plus'
countries -- Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea
and the United States -- to address common security challenges.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
==Kyodo
2010-10-03 01:11:17