14 July 2016

News Story: Asia-Europe summit to boost security and economic cooperation - Malaysian expert

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit is expected to boost cooperation in security and economic cooperation between Asian and European countries, a Malaysian expert said on Wednesday.

One significant area for Asia-Europe cooperation would be in the security field, as both Asian and European countries are facing increasing threat from terrorism, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

"We have seen terrorist activity in both European countries as well as a number of Asian countries, it appeared that nobody is immune as a victim," he told Xinhua.

"So if we could enhance information exchange and intelligence exchange between the law enforcement authorities between Asian as well as European countries, hopefully we could lower the risk of terrorism."

Another key area for cooperation is the economy. "The spiraling down of the world economy would necessitate closer cooperation between the Asian and European countries," said Oh, pointing out that Asia had seen tremendous growth in recent years while Europe still possesses the technology advantage.

Read the full story at Xinhua