China accedes to ASEAN nuclear treaty

By Oei Eng Goan and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

SINGAPORE (JP): ASEAN made significant progress on Wednesday in having China accede to the protocol to the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), and urged other nuclear powers to comply with the treaty to ensure regional peace and stability.

"China will try to be the first nuclear power to sign the treaty," Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi told a joint news briefing at the end of a two-day meeting between ASEAN foreign ministers and their dialog partners.

Wang said China remained consistent in supporting ASEAN's denuclearization policy, but he said the treaty should not cover Exclusive Economic Zones and the continental shelves.

Conforming to its intention to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN, China earlier said that Prime Minister Zhu Rongji would attend the regional grouping's informal summit in Manila in October.

SEANWFZ, which was signed at the ASEAN summit in Bangkok in 1995 and took effect in 1997, prohibits the use, stockpiling, deployment and development of nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia.

Earlier Wednesday during its talks with Russia, one of its 10 dialog partners, ASEAN called on Moscow to sign the protocol of the SEANWFZ treaty.

Stressing Russia's role in ensuring peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan said the multifaceted nature of Russia-ASEAN relations was reflected in Moscow's active participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Foreign ministers of ASEAN member countries -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- discussed a wide range of political and economic issues with their dialog partners following the 32nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and the ARF which ended on Monday.

The dialog partners are Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Chairman of the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC), Singapore's foreign minister S. Jayakumar, said the two sessions covering both regional and international issues were conducted in a strong mood of optimism that the region was recovering from its economic woes.

Jayakumar warned that ASEAN members should keep reform on track and not be complacent over the initial recovery.

PMC also touched on the issues of environment, drug trafficking and other transnational crimes. Jayakumar said it stressed the need for PMC to be more manageable since "PMC has grown in membership and topics".

Surin, who will chair ASEAN's ministerial meeting in Bangkok next year, said that despite the fact that member countries "have become more cohesive, active and candid", ASEAN needed to accelerate the process of integration of its new members in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and ASEAN Investment Cooperation schemes.

He noted the need to put the ASEAN High Council into motion to help mediate possible disputes among members of the regional grouping.

He added that economically stronger members should assist and implement programs for newer members -- Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar -- to catch up with the pace of development.

Both Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas and Jayakumar urged continued reviews of the PMC process.

Alatas warned of a possible "hollowing out" of the PMC since most political/security issues were now tackled by the ASEAN Regional Forum and economic ones were discussed in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.