BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP) – Global efforts to safeguard the environment are inextricably linked to the worldwide campaign against terrorism, EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana said last Thursday.

“Sustainable development is a security issue,” Solana told ministers meeting here amid concerns that the success of a major environmental summit later this month in Johannesburg could be jeopardised by a lack of consensus.

“If you take a map of the world showing the most under-developed countries, and compare it to a map of the world showing regions where conflict prevails, you will see a striking resemblance,” he said.

Solana was addressing members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its 13 major dialogue partners at an annual meeting in Brunei.

Intense discussions on environmental issues ahead of the August World Summit on Sustainable Development have been a major aspect of the ASEAN forum otherwise dominated by talks on global security.

Despite renewed gloomy expectations that the upcoming Johannesburg meet would fail, due to the lack of a crucial pre-summit consensus, Solana said attempts to reach targets in the key areas of water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity were on track.

“I believe they are achievable. But time is short. We must forget about elaborate plans and declarations and get down to work on concrete projects that will produce concrete results. And we must do it now.”

But Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha later told reporters that he “saw no reason for cheer” over the lack of agreement.

“Hopefully, within the next weeks before the summit it will be possible to reach a consensus and I said it is not merely important that countries go to Johannesburg and indicate their position,” he said.

“We must come out of Johannesburg with a consensus,” Sinha said after speaking at the ASEAN dialogue.

A range of issues, including trade and finance, had blocked a deal during a preparatory meeting in Bali in June and the UN said the matters would probably be carried over to the Johannesburg summit.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with partners including Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.