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.