Terror casts shadow as leaders of Asean meet
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AEC takes backseat as Najib slams cowardly, barbaric attacks by islamist extremists
Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in the Malaysian capital yesterday condemned the series of Islamist extremist attacks from Paris to Mali, and called for an international effort to fight the scourge.
Prime Minister Najib Razak of Muslim-majority Malaysia opened a fresh round of summitry by railing against the ideological mantle claimed by Islamic militants.
“The perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed, nor should we allow them to claim to do so,” Najib said in his opening speech at the Asean summit.
“They are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law.”
US President Barack Obama condemned the violence typified by the “appalling” jihadist hostage siege in Mali that left at least 21 dead, including an American citizen.
“This barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge,” he said in Kuala Lumpur.
Obama and his counterparts are meeting in the Malaysian capital for round two in a week of back-to-back regional meetings.
Najib said he had intended to open the summit to talk about an economic community that the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations intends to launch in a region of 622 million people with a combined economic output of $2.5 trillion.
“But the events of recent days and weeks have cast a shadow over us all,” he said.
Najib said that predominantly Islamic countries such as Malaysia have a duty to expose as lies the “ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence”.
Malaysia has announced it is setting up a “counter-terrorism” messaging centre using social media and other messaging tools.
The top-level diplomacy kicked off in Manila with a summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) bloc.
Apec ended with an urgent call for cooperation against extremism following the attacks in Paris by Islamic State group adherents that killed 130.
Many of the same leaders are now in Malaysia for the meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which expands tomorrow into a broader forum including the United States, China, Russia and others.
Obama, America’s self-styled “Pacific president”, has been frustrated to see his Asia tour – aimed at highlighting growing trade and investment ties – overshadowed by the jihadist attacks on the other side of the world.
But his new 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact is on the agenda this weekend, with hopes high of prodding signatory countries to ratify the deal at home.
Obama sought to reassure US allies who are concerned the deal may not become law before he leaves office in early 2017.
“A new trade deal like TPP can be a tough sell,” he admitted, before insisting “TPP is a win for the United States”.
In Kuala Lumpur, Southeast Asia leaders will declare the establishment today of an “Asean Economic Community” (AEC), inspired by Europe.
That takes Asean a step closer toward an envisioned single Southeast Asian market with free flow of goods, capital and skilled labour across borders.
But the AEC’s goals are far off – if they are ever realised at all – due to significant non-tariff and other barriers and large development gaps between member-states. The declaration is largely symbolic.
Asean leaders yesterday signed a new convention against human trafficking, reaffirming past pledges to fight a scourge that activists say thrives due to corruption and inaction.
