A Malaysian Challenge to USA

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that ASEAN will have no difficulty accepting the United States into the East Asia Summit, if Washington signs the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with the grouping, like Australia did.

Now that’s a challenge for the USA, a powerful nation which don’t believe in peaceful means, at least not under the Bush Administration.

But then again, a challenge it might not be, for the USA has in the past broken or ignored rather callously treaties that it had signed. When Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falklands, the USA, instead of going to Argentina’s aid under the Treaty of Rio, supported instead its Anglo-Saxon ally, Britain. Then it abandoned the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) when it suited its agenda. It even ignored international laws when it invaded Iraq.

Mexico was so disillusioned with the US lack of integrity that several years later it eventually resigned from the Rio Treaty, calling it a relic of the Cold War, an oblique barb at the USA.

What was that again - Treaty of Amity & Cooperation?