Posted on 08/01/2002 6:35:44 PM PDT by knighthawk
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — The United States and a bloc of Southeast Asian nations signed a sweeping treaty Thursday aimed at making the region, which has become a second front in the war against terrorism, more responsive to future threats.
The signing capped a week of diplomacy that overcame fears from Vietnam and Indonesia that the accord could lead to the basing of U.S. troops in Southeast Asia, where American forces have already helped the Philippines battle the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
Under the agreement, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Washington will share information, boost police cooperation and plug holes that extremists can exploit. It would bring increased U.S. technical and logistical aid to ``prevent, disrupt and combat'' international terrorism.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who signed the accord, said it would build a ``more intimate relationship'' with the Southeast Asian countries but will not be used as a thin wedge to deploy U.S. troops, which would depend on country-to-country arrangements.
``We are not looking for bases or places to send U.S. troops,'' Powell said.
Powell wants the treaty to lead to a substantial upgrading of security in the region, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
In Southeast Asia, Al-Qaida operatives have established links with local extremists that were exploited in the logistics of the Sept. 11 attacks and plots to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Singapore.
Powell said that he brings the message to each country he visits that the campaign against terrorism should not be a cover to repress legitimate dissent, a charge leveled by opponents of the Malaysian government during his visit there two days ago.
``If we're going to defeat the terrorists, then we have to attack them from the highest moral plane,'' Powell said. ``Human rights have to be protected.''
Next on his Asia tour, Powell visits Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, which neighboring Malaysia and Singapore say has not done enough to crack down on extremists thought linked to al-Qaida.
Powell will bring a plan to increase anti-terror training for Indonesia's police, keeping within U.S. laws that sharply limited military aid after Indonesian troops rampaged East Timor in 1999.
``I expect to discuss military-to-military cooperation with them'' as well as human rights, Powell said, adding he would provide more details in Jakarta.
On Wednesday, ASEAN, the United States, China and 11 other countries reached a separate agreement aimed at blocking extremists from accessing the money they need to carry out terror attacks.
Their agreement targets terrorists' finances with a range of cooperative efforts from freezing assets to creating ``financial intelligence units.''
The forum is made up of the ASEAN countries — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — along with other nations that have security interests in the region.
Both accords dovetail with what ASEAN has made into a theme in its first meeting since the Sept. 11 attacks: fighting terrorism before it happens.
For Southeast Asia, stung by perceptions that it has become a launching pad for terror attacks, it's not only a security issue but an economic one: Fear, the region's leaders say, impedes investment and recovery.
Their annual meeting — derided in the past as an ineffective, bureaucratic talk shop — has been the scene of intense diplomatic contacts dealing with issues ranging from tensions on the Korean peninsula to the conflict between India and Pakistan.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) takes his seat next to Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda (C) and Singapore Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar (L) at the ASEAN-Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) joint press conference in Bandar Seri Begawan, 01 August 2002. AFP photo
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