Australia warmly hails ASEAN anti-nuclear pact
Australia warmly hails ASEAN anti-nuclear pact
SYDNEY (Agencies): Australia warmly welcomed the signing of a treaty banning nuclear arms in Southeast Asia as a step towards the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world, Foreign Affairs minister Gareth Evans said.
"It is a concrete step toward the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapon-free world," Evans said in a statement Saturday.
The signing of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty by 10 countries bans the possession, manufacture and acquisition of nuclear weapons by the signatories. It creates a vast nuclear arms-free zone from Burma and Vietnam in the north to Indonesia in the south.
The pact was signed at the three-yearly summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok.
Evans said the signing of the treaty was a major achievement for ASEAN, not least because it was also signed by Cambodia, Laos and Burma. These three nations are not currently members of the association, but the group hopes to admit them by 2000.
Evans said Australia had been a long-time supporter of the creation of nuclear weapon-free zones, such as those which "now cover most of the Southern Hemisphere."
He pointed out that while Britain, France and the US have said they support a nuclear-free South Pacific, their support for the ASEAN treaty, signed Friday, had not been total.
"They have joined other nuclear weapon states in expressing reservations about certain aspects of the drafting of the SEANWFZ Treaty," Evans said.
"We hope that ASEAN and the nuclear weapon states will be able to reach agreement on any outstanding difficulties associated with the treaty, and urge them to make every effort to do so as soon as possible," he said.
"The establishment of a nuclear weapon-free zone in Southeast Asia is an important contribution to regional security and to the global nuclear non-proliferation regime."
Meanwhile, Australia had never claimed to be part of Asia, Prime Minister Paul Keating said, after his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad remained defiant that Australia remained outside East Asia.
Keating said he would not argue with Mahathir's comments because he had never declared Australia part of Asia.
"We've never said we're going to be a part of Asia," Keating's spokesman said Saturday, "but we're linked with Asia as never before, both economically and security-wise.
"(Mahathir's) not saying anything that we would argue with."
At a press conference at the end of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bangkok Friday, Mahathir said he found it difficult to define Australia as an East Asian nation.
"There may be a time perhaps when Australia is so identified with Asia that we have to accept it as an East Asian nation.
"But at the moment, Australia forms a continent on its own -- the continent of Australasia, so obviously it is not of East Asia," he said.
Canberra has moved to identify Australia far more closely with the Asian region amid the area's strong economic growth during recent years.
Mahathir, known for his Asia-centric views, has maintained a strong stance against Australia's increasingly active participation in several Asian regional forums.
He said the appropriate timing for Australia's participation in the East Asian community might only come when there was a higher proportion of Asians living in Australia.