Thread: Southeast Asian Leaders Form Trade Zone-New World Order

AP
Southeast Asian Leaders Form Trade Zone
Saturday January 13, 11:07 am ET
By Eric Talmadge, Associated Press Writer
Southeast Asian Leaders Agree on Regional Charter, 10-Nation Free-Trade Zone by 2015

CEBU, Philippines (AP) -- Southeast Asian leaders agreed Saturday to turn their region into a free-trade zone by 2015 -- a decade earlier than previously proposed -- and create a tighter political bloc.

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The 10-nation free trade zone will be adopted in two stages, with the six richer nations -- including wealthy Singapore and oil-rich Brunei -- starting the integration in 2010 and the others following later.

"ASEAN is committed to expanding its trade forum to become the largest in the world," Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the host of the annual summit, said in opening the meeting, held under heavy security following three deadly explosions in the southern Philippines days before.

In addition, the leaders signed a counterterrorism pact legally binding their countries to share information, and allowing for joint training aimed at stemming terror and cross-border crime. They agreed on the protection of millions of migrant workers, and vowed to shift energy use from fossil fuel to biofuels.

In a major break with its consensus-based past, the 10-country body also agreed to discuss a plan for a more cohesive organization able to sanction -- or even expel -- members that do not follow its rules. ASEAN's members are the Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei and Indonesia.

Southeast Asian countries have long voiced support for a joint charter, but the proposed addition of formal voting -- instead of consensus -- and the possibility of sanctions or expulsion was likely to be a hard one to accept, particularly for the ruling military junta in Myanmar, also called Burma.

A U.S.-proposed U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, speed up progress toward democracy and stop attacks against ethnic minorities was vetoed Friday by China and Russia.

Before the summit, ASEAN foreign ministers expressed concern over Myanmar's slow progress toward democracy, but stopped short of backing the U.S. resolution.

"I always look forward to good news," Myanmar's ambassador to the Philippines, Thaung Tun, said of the veto.

The Philippines was on high alert for the summit, preceded by three bombings that killed seven people in the country's strife-torn south. More than 8,000 police and soldiers have been mobilized where the summit is being held, in the central Philippine port of Cebu.

But protesters broke through a police cordon Friday and headed toward one of the main summit venues before being stopped and arrested. Another large protest was held Saturday, with demonstrators burning Arroyo, President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in effigy.

China, Japan and South Korea, who will be participating in an expanded summit Sunday involving ASEAN's six "dialogue partners," hope to join the Southeast Asian grouping's economic circle. The other dialogue partners are Australia, New Zealand and India.

Its very clear to me, this will be the Asian union.

So we got
European union
North American union
African union
Caribbean union
South American union
Maybe even a south Pacific union?

These will be the super nations one day...I've been reseaching this for a few months now.

Doesn't the Bible say something like 10 regions?

So if I add Russia, Middle East, China, and the list you have,
what would the 10th one be?

Here is it in more understandable terms...Read the 17 month time line...

http://www.eco.freedom.org/el/20060602/ ... ates.shtml

South American Leaders Discuss Creating Continental Union
Saturday, January 13 2007 @ 08:17 AM EST
Contributed by: Don Winner
Views: 6
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — South American leaders have agreed to create a high-level commission to study the idea of forming a continent-wide community similar to the European Union. Presidents and envoys of 12 nations wrapped up a two-day summit of the South American Community of Nations on Saturday, hosted by Bolivian President Evo Morales in Cochabamba, a city tucked between the Andes and the Amazon in the heart of the continent. "We seek that South America be forever a region of peace that works to solve the economic problems of its historically abandoned majority," Morales said. The leaders agreed to form a study group in Rio de Janeiro to look at the possibility of creating a continentwide union, and even a South American parliament. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former metalworker who was re-elected in October, assured his fellow leaders that the group could rise above its historical divisions to unite the continent — though the process would not be easy.


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