The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea agreed Saturday to bolster economic and financial cooperation by enhancing their currency safety nets. The ASEAN-plus-three countries have already increased the operational flexibility of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization, which came into force in 2010 to address short-term liquidity difficulties to prevent a recurrence of the 1997 Asian currency crisis. At the outset of the gathering in Laos, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa emphasized the importance of strengthening a free…