ASEAN flexible on nuclear issue: Alatas
ASEAN flexible on nuclear issue: Alatas
PHUKET, Thailand (AFP): Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said yesterday that ASEAN countries would be flexible in efforts to have the five nuclear weapons powers sign a treaty banning such arms from the region.
Alatas said officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were holding regular meetings with the five nuclear powers to convince them to sign the nuclear weapons free zone treaty.
"We are hopeful that we can sign an agreement with them," he told reporters after foreign ministers from 10 Asian countries wrapped up a two-day meeting.
"But some areas in the treaty need further discussion ... because some of them have reservations, such as the scope of the treaty," he said.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States have declined to sign the protocol to the treaty, which was inked by ASEAN leaders at their summit in Bangkok in December.
The treaty would ban the storage, use and transport of nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia.
Alatas said that ASEAN "already indicated that we are flexible on the protocol," but that the main text of the treaty would remain unchanged.
He added that the five powers had problems with the treaty itself.
Alatas did not specify which terms of the protocol would be subject to change. The United States has expressed reservations over a clause banning the transport of nuclear weapons through the region.
Alatas also said the boundaries of the treaty was another area which ASEAN officials were discussing with the five nuclear powers.
ASEAN secretary general Ajit Singh, who is attending the foreign ministers meeting here as an observer, said yesterday that ASEAN had "no intention of raising the nuclear issue" at the summit in Bangkok.
He rejected speculation that ASEAN would take advantage of the presence of China, Britain and France at the summit to persuade them to come aboard.
The meeting here brought together ASEAN foreign ministers -- from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea.
The Bangkok summit will also include leaders from Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.