Southeast Asian nations' nuclear treaty faces last hurdles
Southeast Asian nations' nuclear treaty faces last hurdles
By Agus Tarmidzi
This is the first of two articles on the Southeast Asia Nucle
ar Weapons Free Zone treaty.
GENEVA (JP): Despite generally sharing the same customs,
norms and traditional values, the countries in the Southeast Asia
region have not been able to totally avoid strife. The region has
long been known to host endemic conflicts. The bipolar structure
of global politics in the cold-war era, during which the super
states tried actively to spread their respective spheres of
influence, aggravated the situation. Hence, the states belonging
to the region were forced to adapt to, if not align with, one or
two of the superpowers which exerted their political influence in
the region.
Only after the change of government in Indonesia in 1965 did
the idea to create a region free from aggression, domination and
external interference slowly emerge, nurtured by the desire to
create a conducive climate for national and regional development and
cooperation. Fortunately Indonesian concerns over regional
instability were equally shared by all countries in the region,
especially by Malaysia with which Indonesia in the past had a long
and unnecessary conflict. With perseverance and determination and
after many painstaking efforts, the leaders from Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand decided, through
the Bangkok Declaration, to establish the Association of Southeast
Asia Nations (ASEAN) in 1967.
The political sensitivities and suspicions which shadowed
the establishment of ASEAN prevented, however, the founding
fathers of the organization from identifying political coopera
tion as one of the fundamental goals to be achieved by the Asso
ciation. Instead, they explicitly agreed to focus their coopera
tion on cultural and economic fields, which to date have cata
pulted the region into the category of "most rapidly developing
region in the world" in terms of economic progress, with an ap
proximately 8 percent growth rate per year.
Through mutual understanding, intensive dialogs and full
cooperation, political sensitivities and suspicions gradually
diminished and finally disappeared, boosting a sense of confi
dence among ASEAN members. In the 1970's, the bonds among the
ASEAN members started to solidify. It was therefore understand
able, that during that period, the ASEAN countries took the risk
of getting involved in some political moves.
The ASEAN countries then openly declared their intention to
establish a zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN), a
concept which was endorsed by the ASEAN foreign ministers in
Kuala Lumpur, on November 1971. They also agreed that the estab
lishment of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (SEA-
NWFZ) would be critical to materializing such a lofty objective.
In conformity with the Kuala Lumpur political decision, which was
a point of no return, the ASEAN countries have worked relentless
ly to draft the a nuclear-free-zone treaty.
Thus at multilateral forums, the ASEAN countries have
consistently introduced the concept and jointly presented many
resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, calling for
all UN members to consider and approve the establishment of such
a zone in the region. It was not surprising to see that during
the First Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly
devoted to Disarmament (SSOD-I) in 1978, the ASEAN countries
justifiably demanded the inclusion of a clear reference to these
regional efforts in the Final Document of this UNGA Special
Session.
A crystal-clear reference was hence formulated and duly
reflected in Paragraph 64 (a) of the document. Since this time,
the Final Document of SSOD-I has become a driving force behind
ASEAN's goal of establishing the SEA-NWFZ. Paragraph 60 also
acknowledges that the establishment of such a zone on the basis
of arrangements freely arrived at among the states of the region
concerned constitutes an important disarmament move, and of
course, a non-proliferation measure.
Likewise, similar attitudes have always been shown by the
ASEAN countries in the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT). As may be recalled, Article VII of the NPT also recognizes
the right of any group of states to conclude treaties in order to
assure the total absence of nuclear weapons in their respective
territories. As a result, all final consensus documents of the
NPT Review Conference contained references to the SEA-NWFZ and
were recognized as having significant potential contributions to
the preservation and promotion of regional as well as interna
tional peace and security.
Internal problems, however, posed formidable hurdles to the
speedy conclusion of the SEA-NWFZ. Political maturity, which indeed
varied from one country to another, made it difficult to move
ahead. It took years for the governments of Singapore, Thailand
and the Philippines to accept that the conclusion of the treaty
would constitute a significant contribution to the regional
stability, which in turn, would also facilitate the achievement
of the goals set out by the founding fathers of ASEAN.
Again, after negotiating so painstakingly and avoiding
western-style multilateral negotiations -- which later was la
beled by outsiders as the ASEAN-style quiet diplomacy -- the
experts from ASEAN countries managed to conclude the draft treaty
and present it for signature by the heads of states or govern
ments of the Southeast Asia countries at the Fifth ASEAN Summit
in Bangkok, on December 1995. Article 1 (a) of the treaty stipu
lates that the SEA-NWFZ will cover an area comprising the terri
tories of all states in Southeast Asia, namely, Brunei Darussa
lam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philip
pines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The countries involved in
its formulation agreed to jointly sign and hence the SEA-NWFZ has
formally come into being. The ratification of the treaty by the
seven Southeast Asia countries will allow the treaty to enter
into force.
It is, however, to be noted that in order to render it
effective there is a need for all nuclear-weapons states, namely
the U.S., UK, France, Russia and China to accede to the protocol.
Their commitments to fully abide by the provisions of the proto
col are required in order to render the treaty effectively capa
ble of implementation.
The long journey therefore has yet to finish and the full
implementation of the SEA-NWFZ is still far away. The ASEAN
countries will not stop until the SEA-NWFZ is really implemented
and adhered to by all nuclear-weapons states. For the ASEAN
countries firmly believe that this will help contribute to the
achievement of a nuclear-weapons free world.
Failure to materialize it would be an unforgivable mistake
on the part of all countries, especially the nuclear-weapons
states. The immense destructive power of these abhorrent weapons,
as the international community has witnessed in the cases of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cannot be tolerated. The existence of
these appalling weapons will continue to pose a serious threat to
all human beings and, indeed, to the whole world. Once implement
ed, the SEA-NWFZ would prevent the Southeast Asia region from
falling victim to these inhumane weapons.
By signing the treaty, the states have tested its viability
in terms of securing the ratifications of the protocol by all
nuclear-weapons states to render the treaty operational. Hence,
the countries in the region have entered the second phase of the
negotiations, intensively consulting and negotiating with the
nuclear-weapons states over specific concerns expressed by them.
These relate to the following issues:
1. The area to be covered by the treaty is considered by the
nuclear-weapons states to be far too over-arching. For clarity's
sake, there is a need to quote Article 1 (a) which deals the area
of coverage. It stipulates: "Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free
Zone, hereinafter referred to as the "zone", means the area com
prising the territories of all states in Southeast Asia, namely,
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and their respec
tive continental shelves and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ)".
Sub-paragraph (b) of Article 1 continues to state that: "territo
ry means the land territory, internal waters, territorial sea,
archipelagic waters, the seabed and sub-soil thereof and the
airspace above them".
2. The legal interpretations of the contents of Article 2 of
the protocol are considered to jeopardize the right of the nucle
ar-weapons states to use nuclear weapons. Again, for the sake of
clarity, there is a need to quote Article 2 of the Protocol. It
stipulates: "Each state party undertakes not to use or threaten
to use nuclear weapons against any state party to the treaty. It
further undertakes not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons
within the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone" (negative
security assurances).
Window: Thus at multilateral forums, the ASEAN countries have
consistently introduced the concept and jointly presented many
resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly.