In his annual State of the Union address, US President George W. Bush called on Tuesday for concerted action to end North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan and help restore democracy in Myanmar.
He called for a coordinated response to the threat of international terrorism, citing Southeast Asia's success in breaking up a terrorist cell grooming operatives for attacks inside the US.
In a speech that focused largely on Iraq, energy and domestic health issues, the US leader also sought a "serious, civil, and conclusive debate" to draw up comprehensive US legislation to regulate immigration.
Close to one million Asians are considered illegal immigrants in the US and a proposed crackdown against them led to massive protests last year.
Beleaguered by the unending war in Iraq and politically handicapped by a Democratic-controlled Congress, Bush still found time to address some of Washington's key concerns in Asia.
He lumped military-ruled Myanmar together with Cuba and Belarus, saying "we will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom."
China and Russia recently vetoed a US draft resolution at the UN Security Council urging Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end military sexual violence.
"Sorry that it was vetoed by two countries, but again, it put the issue of Burma [Myanmar] as an issue for the international community," Bush's national security advisor Steve Hadley said as he briefed reporters before the president's speech. "So it's an ongoing effort."
On North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, Bush said the US was pinning its hopes on six-party talks to end the crisis.
"Together with our partners in China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, we are pursuing intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons," he said.
The US and the four countries are negotiating with Pyongyang to disband its nuclear arms network in return for security and diplomatic guarantees and energy and other aid.
In Afghanistan, Bush noted the landmark efforts by NATO forces to drive out Taliban militants and al-Qaeda fighters trying to regain power.
He said additional US forces were being sent to Iraq "with orders to find the terrorists and clear them out.
"We did not drive al-Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq," he said.
Bush called for cooperation from allies, including in Asia, in the "war on terror," saying that "every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shoreless ambitions of this enemy."
"We broke up a Southeast Asian terrorist cell grooming operatives for attacks inside the United States," he said, citing a key operation in the region, regarded by Washington as the second front in the war on terror.
The cell of 17 operatives was led by an Indonesian militant known as Hambali, captured in Thailand in August 2003. He admitted that the operatives "were being groomed for attacks inside the United States, probably using airplanes."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS