ASEAN vs. Junta government vs. nuclear weapons?

The security forum of the 10-member ASEAN (Association for Southeast Asian Nations) community is going to have the Vietnamese Defense minister, General Phung Quang Thanh as its chair. The main idea of this forum was proposed at the Shangri La Dialogue security conference last weekend in Singapore. The conference was positive about the new forum that it would be able to soothe down the competing territorial claims and other local affairs in Southeast Asia. The deputation from Russia and India is anticipated for the meeting that’s going to be held in Hanoi in October. The hot issue was that Burma’s deputy defense minister, Aye Myint, was due to attend the summit but pulled out at the last minute, likely in relation to the exposé. The country’s leaders have repeatedly denied they are developing nuclear weaponry, although several army defectors have in recent years talked of nuclear programs in the pariah state. North Korea and the Burmese junta’s suspected allies for nuclear weapons stayed out of the ASEAN’s event. Despite the poor state of Burma’s economy, huge sales of gas and hydropower electricity to neighboring countries, particularly China and Thailand, are believed to have financed the wider project, which includes the development of a network of underground military bunkers across Burma. However Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein who attended the World Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh on June 6th and 7th told the audience that Burma has been participating earnestly in all regional organizations do.

Read more at http://www.dvb.no/news/new-asean-security-forum-mooted/10103
Read more at http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-dismisses-nuclear-%E2%80%98stereotyping%E2%80%99/10088

Submitted by David Gum Awng