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WASHINGTON: After much debate, Asia is finally expected to agree to
hold its first civilian-military disaster relief exercise with key
powers such as the United States, Russia and the European Union (EU).
It will set the stage for real emergency
response to disasters, such as the recent cyclone that ravaged
Myanmar and left 138,000 dead or missing as its ruling military
junta came under strong criticism for blocking aid efforts.
An upcoming ministerial meeting in Singapore of
the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), Asia’s top security forum, may
agree to hold the disaster relief exercise among its 27 member
nations as early as 2009, a US official said.
ARF senior officials agreed in May to conduct
such an exercise that could pave the way for militaries of Asean,
China, India, the United States, Russia and EU member-states to help
coordinate a disaster relief response.
“So, I hope that at this meeting, we can move
that to the next stage—to the point it is agreed and planning
begins so that it could actually happen as early as next year,” US
envoy to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Scot
Marciel told Agence France-Presse.
“I know next year sounds like a long time away
but in the ARF world, it takes a while to have consensus on
everything,” he said.
Asked whether the ARF foreign ministers would
endorse the plan at their July 24 talks in Singapore, Marciel said,
“I think it is a good possibility.”
“There is genuine interest and enthusiasm for
this and political will is there.”
Disaster relief had been a hot topic in ARF
since a tsunami swept through the region in December 2004 killing
220,000 people in a dozen countries.
The United States, Japan, Australia and India
forged a loose coalition to help coordinate relief to victims of the
tsunami, triggered by an undersea earthquake that struck off
Indonesia.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected
to attend the ARF ministerial talks after skipping the annual
gathering in Manila last year, an Asean diplomat said.
Besides the Asean states of Brunei, Cambodia,
East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, ARF comprises Australia,
Bangladesh, Canada, China, EU, India, Japan, the Koreas, Mongolia,
New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Sri Lanka and the
United States.
The ARF, the principal official forum for
security dialogue in Asia, adopted a set of guidelines for disaster
relief cooperation at the Manila talks last year.
It also agreed to terms of reference for a
troika comprising the incoming and previous ARF chairs and a non-Asean
member to quickly convene during an emergency for decision making.
Marciel cautioned that certain “technical
issues may get into the way” of a swift ARF disaster relief
exercise.
They include sensitivities such as the issue of
“military of one country operating in another country,” one
State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“There is a need to have agreement on that
[but] there has been a lot of work done already on this in ARF,”
Marciel said.
Asia is the world’s most disaster-prone
region, at the mercy of tropical storms, earthquakes, floods,
landslides and other calamities.
In May, besides the devastating cyclone in
Myanmar, an earthquake in China’s southwestern Sichuan province
left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing and up to five million
homeless.
-- AFP
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