‘We strongly urge (North Korea) to immediately comply fully with its obligations under all relevant UN Security Council Resolutions’
The ASEAN meeting has kicked off in the Philippines this week with the topic of North Korea being at the top of the agenda, making all other topics less important when it comes to the growing concerns of the rogue hermit states nuclear ambitions that have put many member states at risk of a nuclear strike.
ASEAN is calling on North Korea to ‘exercise self-restraint’ and stop its missile tests that threaten the region’s peace and stability. The various ASEAN ministers are expressing grave concerns regarding the recent missile testing by North Korea and believe that it will only lead to an escalation of tensions in the region.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to speak at the summit and strongly condemn North Korea as well at Asia’s largest security forum and call for the suspension of North Korea from the forum until they have abandoned its nuclear ambitions. In their statement, the ASEAN ministers did not address the possible US proposal for excluding North Korea from the ARF but called on Pyongyang to ‘positively contribute’ to realising the forum’s vision of maintaining Asia and the Pacific ‘as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity’.
Its not yet known if the topic of ISIS and its growing support base in the Philippines will be discussed however it is presumed that such a topic will be at the top of the agenda with North Koreas nuclear ambitions.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar and consists of various dialogue partners, including the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
