Terrorist threats, the hardening anti-democracy stand of Myanmar's ruling junta and the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program will dominate a meeting of more than 20 Asia Pacific leaders this week in the Cambodian capital.
The foreign ministers of the 10-member ASEAN will meet today and tomorrow, ostensibly to enhance economic cooperation. They will join their Asian and Western counterparts, including the US, at a regional security meet on Wednesday.
While economy will not be ignored, the talk is likely to be centered on terrorism, an issue highlighted by the arrest of eight suspected Islamic extremists in recent weeks in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand.
The men were accused of being members of Jemaah Islamiyah. The regional terror network is blamed for the Oct. 12 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people. Four of the suspects were allegedly plotting attacks on embassies in Bangkok.
The ASEAN ministers are expected to declare at the end of their meeting a renewed determination "to cooperate closely with the international community in combating international terrorism," according to a draft of the joint communique obtained by reporters.
Another worrying issue is the standoff between the US and North Korea, stemming from the communist country's admission that it has a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 treaty.
At Wednesday's ASEAN Regional Forum, US Secretary of State Colin Powell will try to muster support to persuade Pyongyang to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Asian leaders had hoped North Korea's Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun would attend, saying his high-level presence would add weight to discussions, but the North's delegation will be led by diplomat Ho Jong.
Southeast Asian foreign ministers are expected to urge Pyongyang to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to seek assurances that war will not break out on the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to build nuclear weapons as a deterrent to what it called a ``hostile'' US policy.
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Powell said he takes North Korea at its word that it has developed nuclear weapons, but "we will not be frightened into taking action that would not be appropriate."
Powell has also spoken harshly about the ruling junta of Myanmar, which on May 30 put under detention pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, jeopardizing a two-and-a-half-year national reconciliation process aimed at restoring democracy.
"It is time for the United States to reassess its policy toward a military dictatorship that has repeatedly attacked democracy and jailed its heroes," Powell said in a commentary in Thursday's Wall Street Journal.
He said he would urge ASEAN to do the same, "despite their traditional reticence to confront a member and neighbor of their association."
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