ASEAN officials draft ministers' communique

ASEAN officials draft ministers' communique

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia (JP): Senior Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) officials ended their meeting yesterday,
fine-tuning the final communique for ministerial consideration
and calling for the nuclear weapons states to accede to a
nuclear-weapons-free-zone treaty.

"We call upon nuclear-weapons states to demonstrate their
support for the establishment of a nuclear weapons-free zone by
acceding to the protocol of the SEANWFZ (Southeast Asia Nuclear
Weapons Free Zone) treaty," said Malaysian Foreign Minister
Abdullah Badawi, who chaired the ASEAN Standing Committee
meeting.

He said the treaty was an important aspect to southeast Asian
states' efforts to strengthen security in the region.

Leaders of ten southeast Asian states -- Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam -- signed a treaty in 1995 committing
themselves to a nuclear-free region.

However the nuclear weapons powers -- Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States -- are reluctant to sign the
treaty's protocol, are demanding certain adjustments to it.

ASEAN officials have agreed that a working group's task to
improve the treaty would now be extended. There had been hopes
that the five nuclear powers would sign on by the meeting here.

The director general for political affairs at Indonesia's
foreign ministry, Nugroho Wisnumurti, said the working group
would "try to accommodate as much as possible" the concerns of
the nuclear states. Nevertheless he warned that there are
limitations as to how far ASEAN could go.

Malaysian Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Abdul Kadir
Mohamad also said senior officials would recommend an extension
of the working group's work to the foreign ministers.

Sticking points

One of the main sticking points, he said, was whether states
had the right to define a geographic area or zone which
encompasses exclusive economic zones and continental shelves.

The ASEAN senior officials meeting is a precursor to the two-
day ASEAN Ministerial Meeting set to begin tomorrow. It will be
followed up on Sunday by the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting which
brings together ASEAN and its dialog partners. It will be
followed on Monday by the two-day Post Ministerial Conference.

Without going into details, Mohamad said officials were also
fine-tuning the political agenda of the joint communique which
will be adopted by the ministers on Friday.

He also said that senior officials would be meeting in Kuala
Lumpur in October to finalize the draft of the ASEAN Vision 2020
before it is forwarded to ASEAN leaders at their informal summit
on Dec. 14.

The Vision statement, on how ASEAN states will tackle the free
trade area, will consist of political and economic sections.

Senior officials also began working out the agenda for
December's informal summit, to which leaders from China, Japan
and South Korea will be invited.