PHILIPPINES: Foreign ministers discuss security cooperation in Southeast Asia at their summit in Manila and express sympathy for the South Korean hostages being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan

Record ID: 858853

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Foreign ministers discuss security cooperation in Southeast Asia at their summit in Manila and express sympathy for the South Korean hostages being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan
  • Date: 2nd August 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF FOREIGN MINISTERS POSING FOR GROUP PHOTO WITH MANILA SKYLINE IN BACKGROUND CAMERAMEN FILMING VARIOUS OF MINISTERS LEAVING PHOTO SESSION
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
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  • Country: Philippines
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  • Reuters ID: LVAEBCCJ4KDISQ6QOCRXXS6A49Z5
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  • Story Text: Foreign ministers discuss security cooperation in Southeast Asia at their summit in Manila and express sympathy for the South Korean hostages being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Left-wing activists burn an American flag to protest U.S diplomat John Negroponte's participation in the meeting.
    North Korea demanded on Thursday (August 2) the United States remove it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism and lift a strict trade ban before further progress could be made on dismantling its nuclear programme.
    North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, in his first trip overseas since taking office in May, was addressing the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF)at a closed meeting in Manila.
    Asia's largest security summit involves the 10-member Southeast Asian group and 17 dialogue partners, including the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India, the European Union and Australia.
    Diplomats quoted Pak as saying North Korea had shut its Yongbyon nuclear facilities and opened them to international inspections and now wanted to see reciprocal action, including being dropped from the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act. Christopher Hill, the U.S. point-man on six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programme, said he found Pak's comments "harsh".
    According to a South Korean diplomat South Korea and the United States met on the sidelines of the forum and agreed there would be no military action to free the 21 hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
    Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia had a lot of people in Afghanistan and wouldn't want to see a growing pattern of hostage-taking encouraged by ransoms being paid.
    The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said everybody was doing the utmost to cooperate with the governments of South Korea and Afghanistan to do whatever they could to liberate the hostages.
    U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from South Korea, China, the Philippines and India on the sidelines of the summit. He told reporters there were "great, great opportunities" for U.S. relations with ASEAN and he was particularly excited by the fact that the ASEAN countries plan to form a single unified market by the year 2015.
    A few blocks away from the high walls surrounding the meetings, more than 100 protesters from left-wing group Bayan (Nation) burned an American flag in protest of Negroponte's presence at the forum.
    The protesters rallied against police forces who held them back from approaching the ARF venue.
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