Seized by innumerable natural disasters in the last decade, Asian leaders present at the Asia – Pacific summit in Singapore decided to help each other and develop a common vocabulary during a crisis.

“If you have practiced before, if you know the radio frequencies, you share common language, common procedures, then you can act so much more effectively in a disaster situation,” said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, who chaired this week’s series of meetings of foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations.

The statement was careful to say that aid cannot be forced on any country, a bid to put at ease countries that fear that accepting foreign troops, even for relief work, would jeopardize their sovereignty. The caveat appeared aimed at Myanmar, where the ruling junta refused to allow foreign militaries, including U.S. troops, to enter the country after the May 2 cyclone.

The foreign ministers of 26 countries and the European Union endorsed on Thursday a proposal by the Philippines and the United States to conduct a disaster relief drill in 2009. The proposal plans for disaster relief cooperation which can be boosted by setting up interlinked centers in the region, some for training, some for command control in an emergency.

In other peace talks, North Korea signed a non-aggression treaty with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), taking another small step toward normalising its relations with the outside world. The Asian leaders also urged Thailand and Cambodia to resolve their differences. Some 4,000 Thai and Cambodian soldiers are facing each other over a small patch of land near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple , in one of the most dangerous flare-ups of regional tensions in decades.