"Waves of groups extremists from Middle East to Southeast Asia are growing that this region is feared to become center of terrorist activities," said Prof Zhang Chi from the Strategy Research Institute of the National Defense University, which is under the People`s Liberation Army (PLA).
Chinese-ASEAN cooperation has to be strengthened to face terrorism, the professor was quoted by the government official mass media as telling the Shangri-La Dialog in Singapore.
Zhang, who was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Shangri-La Dialog, said so far China and ASEAN had carried out joint exercises in battling terrorism.
"But cooperation has to be increased as terrorist groups are growing fast," he said.
With the weak political development and economic condition this region easily becomes a fertile ground for terrorism capitalizing on the sensitive religious sentiment, he added.
He pointed to the death of 200 people when the Islamic radicals attacked the city of Malawi, the Philippines in May 2017.
Leader of Philippines hard line group Isnilon Hapilon, who sworn loyalty to ISIS admitted responsibility for the attacks.
China will also strengthen cooperation with Laos in national security, in fighting terrorism and drug trade as a result of the meeting between Chinese government advisor , and Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi and Laotian Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath and Public Security Minister Somkeo Silavong in early May 2018.
Terrorist analyst from China Institute of Contemporary International Relations Li Wei said , knowing that security is tight in autonomous district of Xinjiang, terrorist entered China via southeastern and eastern areas.
Therefore, China, India, and a number of other countries cooperate in the fight against terrorism through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
In December last year, eight member countries of SCO held joint exercise to fight terrorism to improve coordination and share the experience in Xiamen, in the province of Fujian.
Cooperation in the fight against terrorism is the main issue in SCO and the organization has launched military training every two years since 2003 to cope with terrorism, separatism and extremism in the name of religion.
The latest peace mission was held in Kyrgyzstan in September 2016.
(T.SYS/B/H-ASG/F001)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
