The meeting, gathering finance ministers and central bank governors, took place on the sidelines of the annual Asian Development Bank (ADB) meetings in the Fijian resort of Nadi.

This event also looked into ways to address negative fallout on the economies from the trade tension between the US and China.

The countries are now planning to add the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan to the 240 billion-USD safety net in a bid to reduce the overreliance on the US dollar. They also considered strengthening their policy coordination with the International Monetary Fund in response to crisis situations, according to Kyodo News.

To prevent a repeat of the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the countries in 2000 launched the Chiang Mai initiative, a USD-denominated multilateral currency swap arrangement under which member countries facing short-term liquidity shortages can access a pool of USD in exchange for their currencies.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.-VNA