May 30th 2002
Senior Asia-Pacific defence officials, headed by US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, meet in Singapore this weekend to discuss security in a region fraught with tension.
The conference takes place with India and Pakistan on the brink of war, the emergence of al-Qaeda cells in the region and continuing strained relations across the Taiwan Strait and on the Korean peninsula.
Defence ministers and policymakers from 18 countries, including British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon are to attend the conference designed to "encourage a more open security dialogue" in the region, organisers said.
It is intended "to offer an opportunity for high-level multilateral discussion of security issues in the Asia Pacific," the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.
However, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes, who was to have chaired a session on the organisation of Asian security, cancelled his trip Thursday as tensions with Pakistan seemed unabated.
The United States has warned India and Pakistan that "irresponsible elements" in the South Asian countries could spark a war, if the two nuclear rivals allow their relations to further deteriorate.
Between them, India and Pakistan have massed one million troops along their common frontier, with soldiers engaging in heavy artillery duels daily.
Other sessions at the conference cover US strategy in the region, China's military doctrine, Europe's role in Asian security, managing the terrorist threat and non-proliferation challenges in the region.
Wolfowitz said before leaving Washington that the September 11 attacks were an assault on the whole civilized world -- not just the United States -- and he would use the talks to focus on the future strategic shape of East Asia.
"It is also important for our Asian friends to understand that these terrorist attacks are not just attacks on the United States but are attacks on all of us," Wolfowitz said.
In December, Singapore police arrested 13 members from the Jemaah Islamiyah, an alleged terror organisation linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network which is accused of carrying out the September 11 atrocities in the United States.
Information from the 13 has led to the arrest of several other suspected militants in the Philippines and Malaysia.
In its annual report released earlier this month, the IISS said Asia had achieved "greater strategic coherence" in the past year, and after a period of comparative strategic neglect, the US presence in Southeast Asia had expanded markedly.
"Japan's economic woes, China's growing pains and strategic concerns, ASEAN's political and economic disarray and North Korea's continued isolation, of course, will preclude any true concert.
"But September 11 and China's economic opening have placed a premium on international engagement and regional cooperation in most Asian capitals."
IISS has billed the Singapore conference as a "most important para-diplomatic event ... providing an unprecedented opportunity for official and semi-official defence discussions."
