June 4th 2002
SINGAPORE — A new Asia-Pacific security agreement will help the region fight terrorism and complement alliances with the United States, Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said on Sunday.
In a speech at an Asia security conference in Singapore, Nakatani said defense officials could cooperate on security concerns such as sea piracy and narcotics, and also arms control and disarmament.
“I believe the proposed multilateral framework would supplement some shortcomings of existing multilateral security frameworks,” he said.
Defense authorities could also look into cooperating in areas such as peacekeeping, maritime search and rescue and large-scale disaster relief, he said.
The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), under the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) 10-member grouping, had played a major role as the only regional forum for security dialogue.
But he said the role of defense authorities had been limited.
Japan and other Asian countries focused on concerns about a potential escalation in the conflict between Pakistan and India over Kashmir and the war against terrorism at the three-day conference.
