"Terrorism remains a hot topic threatening people in many countries in the world including the countries in ASEAN despite active efforts at national, regional and international levels," Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said during opening the 6th ASEAN-Japan counter-terrorism dialogue on Thursday.
"Terrorists are still nursing the ambition to utilize all means to carry out inhumane criminal acts causing even greater fears and tragedies," he said.
Sar Kheng said that the meeting will be greatly benefited participating countries as they can propose their anti-terrorism projects to Japan for support through the Japan-ASEAN Integrated Fund to fight terrorism.
According to Thursday`s media release, as ASEAN integration makes steady progress, terrorism is considered as the major impediment which could undermine ASEAN efforts to enhance " connectivity", therefore, toward 2015, continuous and further Japan-ASEAN cooperation for this area is expected to be assured.
The two-day meeting is being co-chaired by Sieng Lapresse, undersecretary of state for Cambodian Ministry of Interior, and Takaaki Kojima, ambassador in charge of International Counter- Terrorism Cooperation of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ASEAN countries consist of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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