Vientiane, July 29:

Asia’s biggest security forum agreed today to push efforts to fight terrorism, keep the Straits of Malacca piracy-free and fend off conflicts through diplomacy as it ended an annual session bereft of some of the region’s top diplomats. The forum capped a six-day minister’s conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that saw Australia shed past reservations and sign a non-aggression pact with its neighbours. The 10-member Southeast Asian bloc joined 15 other Asia-Pacific nations - including East Timor, admitted to the group today - for the ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos to discuss terrorism, the situation on the Korean peninsula and the safety of the Straits of Malacca, the world’s most pirate-infested waterway. The ARF agreed on a new doctrine to empower its chairman to convene committees to intervene to head off brewing conflicts. Details were to be worked out later.

“This is the year for a transition from just meeting to build confidence to moving into the arena of preventive diplomacy,” Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said.

The gathering in the Laotian capital of Vientiane was marred by the absence of top diplomats from the US, Japan, China and India, who sent deputies instead.