ASEAN summit on nuclear free zone

ASEAN summit on nuclear free zone

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Senior ASEAN officials are to formally propose a summit with Japan to their foreign ministers and expect a regional nuclear free zone treaty to be implemented by June, a report said yesterday.

Malaysian foreign ministry secretary-general Abdul Kadir Mohamad said late Wednesday at the end of a two-day meeting of senior officials of the regional grouping that an ASEAN-Japan summit was "a good idea." The meeting was held in Kota Kinabalu, in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state.

Abdul Kadir also said ASEAN expects a treaty banning nuclear weapons from the Southeast Asian region to come into force by June.

By then, he said, seven countries will have ratified the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone treaty, the minimum number required for the agreement to take effect.