PM Badawi

The Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has called for the formation of an East Asian community of nations similar to the European Union to give the region a bigger say in world affairs. This report from Jonathan Kent:

Listen to the story

The Malaysian leader called for the ten-member Association of South-East Asian nations to sign a formal pact with China, Japan and South Korea to work towards the formation of an East Asian Community, using the European Union as its benchmark. However, he conceded that even with persistence and good fortune, it would take at least two generations for Asia to match European levels of cooperation.

As a step on that route, he suggested setting up a regional monetary fund to supplement the work of the IMF.

Jonathan Kent, BBC News, Kuala Lumpur.

Listen to the words

analogy
similarity, correspondence

forced to
made to behave unnaturally

rested on
relied on, depended on

called for
suggested, put forward a proposal that they should

a formal pact
an official agreement or treaty

benchmark
a standard, an example

conceded
admitted, agreed

persistence
if you do something with persistence, you continue to do it in spite of difficulties or obstacles

Read more about this story