SE Asia urged to boost support for chemical weapons treaty
SE Asia urged to boost support for chemical weapons treaty
SINGAPORE (AFP): Southeast Asian nations were urged on Wednesday to strengthen support for an international treaty banning the production and use of chemical weapons.
Of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), three -- Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand -- had yet to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention, an accord which came into force in 1997, said John Gee, deputy director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Gee, in remarks to a regional forum in Singapore on the Chemical Weapons Convention, said he found it "puzzling" why the three countries would not take the "next logical step" of being parties to the treaty when the Southeast Asian grouping already supports nuclear disarmament.
"To put this in perspective and to demonstrate that this region is important for the convention's continued credibility -- Thailand is the most populous," country which is not a party to the treaty, he said, adding that Myanmar is the third.
"If we also recall that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is the fifth (most populous), it would appear that urgent action is required to bring all of Asia into the OPCW," Gee said.
At a news conference, he said "bureaucratic delays" such as translating the treaty into the national language so it could be discussed by lawmakers, could be a reason Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand had yet to ratify the treaty.
"I believe it's just the question of them elevating it to a sufficient level of priority," he said.
Gee warned in his speech that "tensions" could arise if not all members of the Southeast Asian grouping ratified the treaty. Some of the chemicals subject to a trade ban under the convention were needed in the industries of these countries.
The treaty stipulates that states which are not party to the convention cannot obtain such chemicals from states that have ratified the treaty, since they are banned from exporting them.
"Clearly no one wants to see a situation where tensions are created within ASEAN because trade barriers appear between members of ASEAN, or between ASEAN members and their major trading partners, particularly at a time when the region is showing such strong recovery from the traumatic shocks of 1997," Gee said.