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.