Change sought in SE Asia nuclear free pact
Change sought in SE Asia nuclear free pact
BANGKOK (Reuter): The United States was seeking changes in a southeast Asian nuclear weapons free zone pact to address worries it had about rights of navigation in the region, a U.S. official said yesterday.
Winston Lord, a U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the recently agreed southeast Asian nuclear pact would gain much greater significance if it was supported by the United States and other nuclear weapons powers.
"Our principle concern is the application of this free zone to the continental shelf and the (offshore) economic zones," Lord told a news conference.
"This does have to do with navigation, it does have to do with assurances that can be made," he said.
Ten southeast Asian countries signed the treaty in December banning the possession, manufacture and acquisition of nuclear weapons and called on the world's nuclear powers to support the move by signing a protocol attached to it.
The accord allows "innocent passage" of foreign warships and submarines which may be carrying nuclear weapons. Ships passing through the region's waters or docking in its ports are allowed to go through if they show no warlike intentions.
But the five nuclear powers, led by the United States and China, objected to the treaty's protocol, saying it implied territorial rights that they do not accept and may threaten their ability to move warships around the globe.
ASEAN officials said at the time that as well as U.S. reservations, China had complained the treaty may jeopardize its territorial claims to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, to which four ASEAN members also have claims.
"Clearly, for us to be comfortable, and I suspect for the other nuclear powers, we're going to have to work out some way to make some adjustments," Lord said.
"There are significant issues still to be worked out," he said.
"If this treaty is to take on even greater significance it should have the support/adherence of the nuclear powers," he said.
The treaty, inked at the end of a three-yearly summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok, created a vast Asian nuclear arms-free zone from Myanmar and Vietnam in the north to Indonesia in the south.
It was signed by the leaders of the seven ASEAN countries -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and their neighbors Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
The pact also bans the dumping of nuclear waste in ASEAN waters and gives guidelines for the monitoring of nuclear power.
Lord, who arrived in Bangkok earlier yesterday at the beginning of a tour of the region, said he would be discussing U.S. concerns about the pact and ways it could be amended in his meetings with officials in Thailand and elsewhere.
Lord will also visit Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines.