Sunday November 15, 2009
Obama boost for Asean
SINGAPORE: United States President Barack Obama’s willingness to meet with Asean leaders during the Apec Summit here shows that he acknowledges the importance of this region, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
The Prime Minister hoped that the US leader’s visit here and interest would benefit the region.
Obama was quoted as saying that he wanted to be the first US leader to meet with heads of all 10 members of Asean.
On another issue, Najib said Malaysia and Chile were expected to conclude their bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) soon.
He said Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Jeria, who was supposed to visit Malaysia after the Apec Summit, has decided to postpone her visit as she wanted to come and sign the FTA later.
“The president wants to come on a substantive visit and not for ceremonial purposes,” Najib told reporters after a bilateral meeting with the Chilean president at the sidelines of the Apec meet here yesterday.
On his bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, he said FTA talks were still on-going and that Australia would be sending an expert in vocational training to Malaysia as part of the cooperation in that field.
The issue of human smuggling was also raised, with Rudd expressing hope for Malaysia to help in tackling syndicates involved in human smuggling, Najib said.
On the Apec Economic Leaders Meeting which started yesterday, he said the leaders agreed that the worst had passed but the full economic recovery has not happened and all nations have to play their part to ensure the global economy recovered.
He said the leaders also rejected protectionism in terms of trade as this would hamper economic recovery and cause countries to suffer losses if the trend continued.
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