Prime Minister of Australia says the participants of ASEAN will be a safer and prosperous region

News24xx.com -   At the conclusion of the recently held first ASEAN-Australia special summit in history, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull  triumphantly announced that participants had committed to building "a more secure and prosperous region".

During the two-day summit in Sydney,  Turnbull and nine of its partners from Southeast Asia agreed to work together to strengthen security cooperation and deepen investment and trade.

The unprecedented meeting illustrated Australia's efforts to court of Southeast Asia to achieve strategic and economic benefits during the period of Chinese influence's growth, and  questions about continuing US influence in the region.

Critics, however, also spoke about the moral compromises that the liberal democratic Australia has been willing to make while cosying up to authoritarian leaders with little regard for human rights.

"It's just about money, money, money," said Hong Lim, a state representative on the rival Labor Party, referring to the government's position on abuses throughout Southeast Asia.

Lim was among hundreds of demonstrators, mostly from expatriate communities, who gathered to protest the presence of Prime Minister of Cambodia Hung Sen and de facto leader of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi at the summit.

"It's just awful, humiliating us as a nation, like the Australians. We are better than this, "he