 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd called Wednesday for the international community to band together in forming a global disaster response team following a string of earthquakes, floods and cyclones. Rudd said international search-and-rescue crews had mobilized slowly after February's New Zealand earthquake and the devastating quake and tsunami that hit Japan last month, and pointed out the need for a more streamlined response strategy. "If we had a huge event affecting a major capital city in the region or across the world with a large-scale loss of life, the international effort which would then be required would be massive and I'm not confident that, currently, the inter-national system of cooperation and coordination would be up to it," Rudd told reporters. "Our current arrangements are not ... sharp enough for that response to be as rapid and as large scale as it needs to be," he added. Chances of survival drop steeply after the first 24 hours following a natural disaster, leading Rudd to say that a system was needed to mobilize search and rescue crews from willing nations immediately after a cataclysm. The foreign minister said he had brought the idea up at the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the East Asia Summit. Rudd made the remarks as he escorted international diplomats through flood- and cy-clone-battered Queensland. AFP |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
