NKorea 'vulgar' to choose missiles over food: US - Lead
Saturday, August 15, 2009 (2150 reads)
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2009 (AFP) - The State Department hit back Thursday at North Korea's denunciation of Hillary Clinton as "by no means intelligent" and her remarks on denuclearization as "vulgar," saying those terms better describe the regime in Pyongyang.
"What is vulgar is that the North Korean government chooses to harvest missiles rather than enough food for its people," declared State Department Philip Crowley in defense of the US diplomatic chief.
"And what is unintelligent is the path that the North Korean government has chosen. It's a dead-end which dooms the North Korean people to a dismal future." Read More...
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Asian security forum to adopt rules for quick-reaction group
Monday, July 30, 2007 (5960 reads)
Friday, July 27, 2007 (The Associated Press) -- Foreign ministers at
Asia's top security forum are expected to formally adopt rules next week for creating a group that will respond quickly to emergencies, officials said Friday, in a move seen as enhancing the forum's role beyond an annual talk-shop. Senior officials of the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-member group that includes the U.S., China, Russia and the European Union, have agreed on the operating rules for the "Friends of the ARF Chair" — a group of three foreign ministers who will assist the ARF chairman in dealing with regional and international problems, Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said. "After two years it will be adopted, it has been endorsed by the ministers," she added. ARF, founded in 1994 by the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has been hobbled by the diversity of its members and its consensus-based decision making. Since its birth, it has focused on building trust among its members through dialogue and confidence-building measures.
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One man's vision of Asian Unity
Monday, July 30, 2007 (3671 reads)
Monday, May 7, 2007 (By William Pesek, Bloomberg News)--At last month's Boao Forum for Asia, the gathering's secretary general, Long Yongtu, offered a sobering guesstimate: Asia needs at least 50 years to integrate its economies the way Europe has.
An equally sobering thought is that many of those funneling into Kyoto for the Asian development Bank's annual meeting may not live to see the Manila-based institution's dream of a truly amalgamated "Countries in Asia are a long way from the economic convergence that you would need to make monetary integration a realistic possibility," David Burton, director of the International Monetary Fund's Asia-Pacific department, said in Washington last month.
In other words, Asia has a lot of work to do to get to a point where replicating Europe's single currency and its level of economic integration is even a possibility. Read More...
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North Korea reaffirms commitment to nuclear talks
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 (3313 reads)
MANILA, May 24, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea has reaffirmed its commitment to multilateral talks to end a deadlock on its nuclear programme, diplomats attending a security forum said here Thursday.The commitment was made by North Korean diplomats during annual security policy talks by senior officials of the 26-nation ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia's only security forum composed of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' 10 members and its partners, including those involved in the six-way talks."DPRK (North Korea) reaffirmed this morning its commitment to multilateral security process," said M.C. Abad, a Filipino diplomat who heads the ARF secretariat. He said the rogue Stalinist state had submitted a document to be included in the ARF's annual security publication in which it "expressed the view that the ongoing implementation of the agreements in the six-party talks is an affirmative development. Read More...
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Asian forum moves to bolster security response
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 (4528 reads)
MANILA, Philippines, May 23 (Associated Press) -- Asia's largest security forum, which includes the US, the European Union and China, is forming a quick-reaction group to respond to outbreaks of war and political crises, diplomats said Wednesday. The move by the 26-member ASEAN Regional Forum is considered a crucial step in deflecting criticism that it is an annual talk-shop incapable of dealing with security threats and conflicts in the volatile Asia-Pacific region. Senior diplomats meeting in Manila this week are finalizing the creation of the so-called "Friends of the Chair," a four-member ministerial-level group that can be rapidly convened when security threats erupt, said M. C. Abad Jr., a diplomat who helps oversee the forum. Read More...
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