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| Monday, 31 January 2005 |
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UN to coordinate Asia's tsunami warning centres PHUKET, Thailand, Sunday (Reuters) The United Nations emerged as a coordinator for a regional tsunami warning centre after officials from 43 nations including India, Indonesia and Thailand failed to agree who should run it. The compromise dealt a blow to Thailand which had wanted to run the centre itself. Thailand is host of the two-day tsunami ministerial meeting on the resort island of Phuket which was itself hit by the Dec. 26 killer waves that devastated Indian Ocean coastal regions. Bangkok's proposal to set up a regional tsunami trust fund, to which it pledged an initial $10 million contribution, was not welcome at the conference, where cabinet ministers of only six countries took part. As with a similar meeting in Kobe, Japan, a week ago, where numerous tsunami warning proposals were put before panels of politicians, national egos appear to be getting in the way of international cooperation. India and Indonesia also wanted to host the regional centre. The compromise came after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a written statement to the conference urging all nations to coordinate their regional efforts. "Our challenge now is to ensure that all the elements of effective early warning systems are integrated, cohesive, and cover not only tsunamis but also other hazards such as cyclones and floods," Annan said. The two-day meeting ended with the participants agreeing that the warning systems should be addressed within the framework of the United Nations. "We agree that the role of the United Nations is the most important in ensuring that all aspects in building an early warning are coordinated effective and timely," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told a news conference. "We agree to advance the establishment of such an arrangement through organisation of expert meetings and needs assessments, to be undertaken with the support of relevant regional and international institutions and governments," Surakiart said. |
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