Obama urges halt to artificial islands in South China Sea

Referring to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, he said, “India shares with ASEAN a commitment to freedom of navigation, over flight and unimpeded commerce, in accordance with accepted principles of global law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

PM of India Narendra Modi said that India is a land of enormous opportunities and invited investors from ASEAN countries to invest in India.

China has been transforming seven reefs in the Spratly archipelago into artificial islands and building three airfields and other facilities on a few of them, prompting concern in Washington and the region that China is extending its military reach deep into maritime Southeast Asia.

The prime minister also had several bilateral meetings on the margins of the summit, notably with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, who hosted him for lunch. They made no comments to reporters, who were allowed in briefly for the start of their meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

More than mere musings, Obama’s comments were intended as a direct rebuke to those demanding a halt to Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering the U.S.in the light of the Islamic State’s attacks in Paris. “They are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law”, Najib said in a stirring speech that repeatedly emphasized the tolerance of Islam.

Heads of state from 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have formally opened their weekend summit in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. “And, we will continue with our reforms with speed and boldness”, he said.

Modi said that after a temporary decline, trade between India and the Asean copuntriues increased to about $76.5 billion in 2014-15. “In addition, we intend to create a Project Development Fund to develop manufacturing hubs in CLMV countries”, he said.

On Sunday, the leaders of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines, along with ASEAN’s four less developed members, Communist Vietnam and Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, will sign a declaration establishing the ASEAN Economic Community, originally envisioned in 2002.

Combating terrorism is likely to be one of the key issues at the 10th East Asia Summit as nations, shocked by the recent horrific Paris terror attacks, try to step up efforts to stem the menace.

“It is the ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence, and in this time of tragedy we must not lose sight of the fact that the ideology itself must be exposed as the lie that it is – and vanquished”.

In charting its future course to 2025, ASEAN aspired to deepen the integration process to realize a rules-based, people-oriented, people-centered ASEAN Community, he added.

China, Li said, supported the forming of a unified Asean region and looked forward to greater political trust, partnership and cultural exchanges in 2016, the year marking the anniversary of Asean-China partnerships. “It was unfortunate”, official sources requesting anonymity told PTI.

Earlier this week Najib said he was “shocked and sickened” by the murder of Malaysian engineer Bernard Then, who was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group in the southern Philippines.