KL pushing for ban on nuke arms

KL pushing for ban on nuke arms

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia will push for the early completion of a draft treaty banning nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia during the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok later this month, news reports said yesterday.

Malaysia's Foreign Ministry deputy secretary-general Hasmy Agam was quoted saying such a zone would complement the Roratonga Treaty of the South Pacific Nuclear-free Zone, thereby making most of the Pacific region nuclear-free,

"We believe the acquisition, use or threat of use of these weapons of mass destruction is morally wrong," he told the New Sunday Times.

The heads of the governments of Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries will be at the Bangkok summit scheduled for Dec. 14. The seven-member ASEAN grouping is also pushing ahead to include Laos, Cambodia and Burma by the end of the decade.

Hasmy lambasted the nuclear-weapon states' doctrine of deterrence based on the logic of mutually-assured destruction, describing it as myopic and suicidal.