Senior security and defense officials from its 24 members attended the ASEAN Regional Forum ( ARF) security policy meeting Thursday at Thai resort island Phuket, agreeing to enhance regional security communication and cooperation, as well as to collectively maintain the regional peace and stability.

More than 70 officials in charge of defense and security issues from 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and its 22 dialogue partners participated in the one-day ARF security policy meeting, which was the sixth of its kind since it was first held in Beijing in 2004.

Delegates agreed the overall international security situation is stable, with the increasing amount of common security interests shared by the international community. However, they underlined the nonconventional issues, such as terrorism, weapon proliferation and marine security, as worth of more notice.

Vice Adm. Sun Jianguo, assistant chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, attended the meeting and chaired the China-ASEAN breakfast meeting.

Iterating the profound impact the international financial crisis dealt on the global and regional security situation, Sun raised suggestions as follows: to deal with the international disputes peacefully, with respect of the existing understanding and agreement; to push forward security mutual-trust on a comprehensive scale; to strengthen regional cooperation and to try to establish the mechanism of joint alarm, information sharing and task coordination on the areas of disaster relief, anti-terrorism and marine security; to seek common security and to launch dialogues in a open-minded and active way.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2009)