By Prashanth Parameswaran
The country has made the initiative a priority for its ASEAN chairmanship in 2015.
Earlier this week, Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein reiterated his country’s desire to establish an ASEAN peacekeeping force as the chair of the grouping this year.
According to the Malaysian newspaper The Star, in an address to the defense ministry before beginning his visits to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, Hishammuddin said that he is in the process of visiting every one of the nine other ASEAN countries and that one of the things he would discuss would be the formation of an ASEAN peacekeeping force.
Seasoned ASEAN observers know that the idea of an ASEAN peacekeeping force is nothing new and has been around for years. Nor is it a purely Malaysian idea – other Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN bigwigs have also supported it the past. As I have noted in an earlier piece, Malaysia is merely reviving an old initiative now when it has the rare privilege of holding both the ASEAN chair as well as a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Read the full story at The Diplomat