Defense officials Wednesday called for armed forces of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) to work more closely in disaster relief, counter-terrorism and maritime security.

"When it comes to tackling non-traditional security threats, armed forces of ASEAN+3 countries should give a priority to seeking cooperation in disaster relief, counter-terrorism, maritime search and rescue, combating pirates," Zhan Yu, president of Shijiazhuang Army Command College (SACC) of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), told a security forum Wednesday.

More than 20 defense officials from ASEAN+3 countries gathered at SACC, located Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei Province, for a two-day forum on non-traditional security issues.

They agreed that over the past years non-traditional security threats, like tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, terrorism, pirating, cross-border crimes, were widely seen in the Asia Pacific region.

Stressing non-traditional security threats were on the rise, Vu Van Khanh, an official from Vietnam's Ministry of Defense, said 10+3 countries had exerted much efforts in enhancing cooperation to cope with those threats, though there remained some barriers.

"The first barrier is the difference of perception of non-traditional security threats of each country in the region." Khanh said.

Despite differences, the Vietnam official called for armed forces of the region to step up cooperation in crisis forecasting, information sharing and personnel training in commonly agreed areas of disaster relief and maritime security, among others.

Lee Wan Sig, official from the ROK defense ministry, said the diversification and increasing scope of disasters made it necessary for countries in the region to seek stronger cooperation, in which military had a greater role to play.

Citing international anti-piracy operations in Somali, Lee urged armed forces of countries to seek a joint response to the piracy and share experiences, knowledge and information.

Chen Shengwu, an official of SACC, called for the establishment of a disaster-warning network throughout ASEAN+3 countries, more technical and equipment assistance among countries and frequent joint exercises and operation in order to enhance capability to counter non-traditional security threats.

The forum concluded later Wednesday with a document summarizing what was said about how to improve the armed forces' capability to deal with non-traditional security threats in regions covering ASEAN+3 countries.

The member states of ASEAN are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua Editor: Guo Changdong