Many countries of Asia are important allies in the war against global terrorism. Asian nations are involved in rebuilding both Afghanistan and Iraq. As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, several Asian countries “have been key players in Operation Iraqi Freedom”:
“They stood by us when the going got tough. In the days during and after our intensive efforts to encourage the United Nations to enforce its own resolutions, they were there and they stood by us. They did not waver.”
That support continues. South Korea is sending an engineering brigade and a medical battalion to Iraq. South Korea is also providing ten million dollars for Iraqi reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.
Japan has pledged over two-hundred-million dollars for humanitarian, refugee relief, and economic assistance in Iraq and surrounding countries. The Philippines and Singapore are also members of the U.S.-led coalition. Secretary of State Powell said that “What has already been achieved in Iraq is remarkable”:
"[L]iberation in Iraq is a great victory for freedom. It has freed the region and it has freed the world from the threat posed by the potentially catastrophic combination of a rogue regime with weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. But above all, it has freed the Iraqi people from a vicious oppressor.”
The countries of Asia are important partners in the war on terrorism. And as Secretary of State Powell said, “Certainly Asia’s weight in the world will grow.”
