Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, May 31

MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged Congress to come up with a Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that would "withstand the test of judicial scrutiny," his spokesman said on Thursday.

In welcoming the passage of the BBL in both houses of Congress, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque appealed to lawmakers "to exert all efforts in ensuring that the final version of the bill would withstand judicial scrutiny."(Philippines-BBL law)

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NEW DELHI -- The Indian economy posted a GDP growth rate of 7.7 percent during the quarter January-March 2018, according to official data released on Thursday.

This is the highest GDP growth rate since the two major economic policies of demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax) were introduced by the government in November 2016 and July 2017, respectively.(India-Growth)

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SINGAPORE -- The 17th annual Shangri-La Dialogue is slated to be held here from Friday to Sunday, with the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, anti-terrorism cooperation and the U.S. function in Asia-Pacific security being on top of the agenda.

Analysts believe that amid the ongoing changes in Asia-Pacific security, the new security concept proposed by China can help change the zero-sum thinking and replace it with mutually beneficial cooperation, allowing various parties concerned to treat conflicts in new perspectives.(Singapore-Shangri-La)

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NEW DELHI -- India and Britain held their third home affairs dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday and the two sides agreed to carry forward the momentum for enhanced security cooperation, said official sources.

The dialogue covered a wide range of issues including cyber security, women safety, organized crime, terror financing etc., and a need to put in place a mechanism for timely exchange of information and intelligence inputs on such issues.(India-Britain-Dialogue) Enditem