USA won’t relent in fight vs IS – Obama

‘HISTORIC MILESTONE.’ Leaders of the 10-member ASEAN sign the declaration establishing the ASEAN Community on December 31, 2015.

A new ASEAN-U.S. Strategic Partnership announced during the summits in Malaysia outlines five priority areas of engagement including expanding economic cooperation.

“The perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed, nor should we allow them to claim to do so”, Najib said in his speech at the ASEAN summit.

The issue was highlighted earlier this year when hundreds of Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority of Myanmar, were found to have been trafficked through Thailand to Malaysia.

The Paris attacks have heightened fears of terrorism in the West and also sparked a debate in the US about accepting refugees from Syria.

Obama commented Sunday at the close of a summit in Malaysia.

He said many civil society groups are concerned about restrictions on civil liberties and rights.

“In addition to hunting down terrorists, in addition to effective intelligence, in addition to missile strikes and in addition to cutting off financing, he said, “the most powerful tool we have to fight ISIL is to say that we’re not afraid”.

This is the biggest challenge for ASEAN integration”, said Zhang.

“If Singapore is not a successful country, then attending these high-level meetings would not be very meaningful because people know that we say one thing, but whether we can deliver is another matter”, he said in Mandarin.

A few 100 Malaysian Muslim activists protested President Barack Obama’s visit to the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation, denouncing him as an enemy of Islam.

The five-day event also saw the presence of other world leaders such as Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, South Korean President Park Geun Hye, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

China enjoys abundant capital and strong technological strength, while ASEAN aspires for accelerated regional integration and has great needs for industrial development and infrastructure, Gao said.

“I think it is absolutely vital for every country, every leader, to send a signal that the viciousness of a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business”, Obama said.

Under the theme “Our People, Our Community, Our Vision”, the two-day summit also touched on serious issues such as climate change, maritime cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and terrorism in the wake of Paris attacks.

Many tariff barriers have already been eliminated among ASEAN states although many politically sensitive sectors remain protected, such as agriculture, auto production and steel.

The ASEAN community includes a political, security and sociocultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar, to the kingdom of Brunei and the democracy of the Philippines.

“The coming into being of the ASEAN Community does not mean that we have arrived at the end of the region-building process”, Najib said.