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.