JDV seeks expanded anti-terror coop in Asia

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. proposed yesterday the expansion of the anti-terrorist coalition in Southeast Asia to include Russia, China and four states in Central Asia.

He made the proposal in separate letters to US State Secretary Colin Powell and President Arroyo.

He said the expansion of the present three-nation coalition composed of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia will "help stem the movement and operations of terrorist and extremist elements from Central Asia and South Asia to Southeast Asia, and vice versa."

"Not only does both the impetus and the flow of Islamic terrorism emanate from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, Mr. Secretary, we also need to involve both China and Russia more intimately into the global campaign against international terrorism if only to make the campaign truly more multilateral than it now seems," De Venecia said in his letter to Powell.

The nations in Central Asia that De Venecia wants included in the anti-terrorism coalition are Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

At the height of the American campaign against theAl-Qaeda terrorist network and its Taliban backers in Afghanistan, the US military stationed troops and equipment in Uzbekistan.