MALAYSIA TO PLAY GREATER ROLE FOR GLOBAL PEACE AND STABILITY, SAYS PM NAJIB

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said
Friday nignt that Malaysia will continue to match words with action in playing a
greater role to help ensure global peace and stability.

"Malaysia has and will continue to play its role as a responsible global
citizen. And, we have shown and will continue to show that our commitment is not
merely rhetorical but is backed up by action," he said in his keynote address at
the opening of the 10th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
Shangri-La Dialogue here Friday.

In working to secure world peace, Najib said, Malaysian peacekeepers had
served under the umbrella of both the United Nations and Nato, and that from
Somalia to the Balkans, Malaysian security personnel had made the ultimate
sacrifice in the service of global stability.

"But ours is not simply a peacekeeping role. Malaysia contributes in many,
sometimes rather unexpected, ways – for example in Afghanistan, where we are
playing our part in the country’s rehabilitation by sending much-needed female
Muslim doctors," he said.

In the fight against global terrorism, Najib pointed Malaysia has also been
an active player, pro-active in ensuring Malaysia becomes neither a hotbed nor a
transit point for terrorist operations.

"This is either actively or through the sharing of intelligence with
regional security apparatus. We have helped with the apprehension or elimination
of terrorists like Mas Selamat, Dr Azhari and Nordin Mat Top," he said.

Citing the southern Philippines as an example, Najib said Malaysia had put
in place an international monitoring team and acted as an intermediary by
hosting peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front.

"This has, at times, been a sensitive issue for us, but we are committed to
taking the lead in the interests of wider stability and peace.

"And in southern Thailand, we have signalled our willingness to help with
the socio-economic development of the four provinces with substantial Muslim
population," he said.

Bilaterally, Najib said, Malaysia was working with the United States to
combat crimes like drug trafficking, terrorism and fraud, and with Australia, to
tackle the issue of asylum seekers and to foster stability in the region.

He said that multilaterally, Malaysia was working to enforce the United
Nations Security Council resolution on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction through "our new Strategic Trade Act".

"I am determined that we will play our part as a responsible member of the
international and regional community and that, in the spirit of the 1995
declaration, we will together make Asean a nuclear-free zone.

"As our economies are so integrated and interdependent, and production
processes are so dispersed across borders, it no longer makes sense for global
powers to go to war as they simply have too much to lose.

"National interest is becoming more and more about collective interest, and
our task now is to reflect this in a multilateralism that is both hard-headedly
realistic and progressive.

"So, it must be built on co-operation and not on confrontation, and for
that, every region, every country, every leader here today must play their part.

"The cynics thought that Asia and the West could never truly come together
as a cohesive whole, that we had too little in common, that life in Surabaya was
simply too far removed from life in San Diego. The last 10 years have proved
them wrong," he said.