As global leaders arrive in Asia for a series of summits, pressure is increasing on Southeast Asian nations to cooperate more to combat terrorism — including by sharing information on financing — after the deadly Islamic State attacks in Paris.
With Group of 20 leaders pledging in Turkey to coordinate more to cut off money flows to terrorist groups, heads of Southeast Asian nations meeting in the Philippines and then Malaysia face renewed scrutiny of the threat posed by local fighters returning from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, alongside home-grown radicalism.
Joining the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila is U.S. President Barack Obama, who declared Islamic State "the face of evil" after at least 129 people were killed in a series of attacks in the French capital. The ambushes were "planned in Syria, organized in Belgium, and carried out in France," French President Francois Hollande said, highlighting the need for cross-border approaches to countering militarism.