President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and his Philippines counterpart Gloria Arroyo agreed yesterday to boost intelligence cooperation to combat al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Musharraf, on a swing through Asia, arrived here late on Monday from India and was given a military welcome yesterday at the Malacanang presidential palace ahead of his talks with Arroyo.
Musharraf, who did not speak to the press, was to address a joint session of the Philippine Congress later in the day.
Arroyo said she compared notes with Musharraf on their respective governments' campaigns against terrorism.
"He believes as much as I do that when we fight terrorism, there is the military aspect and then there's the socio-cultural aspect," Arroyo told a news conference after the talks.
"So on the military aspect, we agreed to enhance our intelligence exchange," Arroyo said. "It's very very important in the world of international terrorism."
Arroyo said her national security adviser Norberto Gonzales is to work closely with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has been tracking down key operatives of the Taliban after the hardline Islamic militia were toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001.
Pakistan abandoned the Taliban in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US. The Taliban had sheltered Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network which carried out the attacks.
Gonzales is tentatively scheduled to meet with ISI officials in June.
Arroyo said both the Philippines and Pakistan will also work together in addressing the root causes of terrorism through enhanching "inter-faith leadership dialogue" to moderate teachings in Muslim schools or madrassas.
The Philippines has been struggling with a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency in the main southern island of Mindanao.
It has opened peace talks with the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but US military advisers are helping it fight the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Key al-Qaeda suspects are believed to have once used the southern Philippines as a training base.
In 1995 Filipino and US intelligence operatives foiled a plot by militant Ramzi Yousef to blow up American airlines from Manila.
Yousef, who was arrested in Pakistan, is serving a lengthy prison sentence in the US for the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center.
Musharraf and Arroyo also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding that will serve as a "legal framework to facilitate cooperation and inter-operability between the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the two countries.".
The agreement was signed by Philippine Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khan.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS