Tuesday, November 15, 2011ASEAN, P5 meet to smoothen SEANWFZ accession
ASEAN officials met here on Monday with their counterparts from five nuclear countries (P5) to discuss ways for the five countries to access the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) in the near future.
“The meeting has served to smoothen our perception of SEANWFZ protocols,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry director general for ASEAN cooperation Djauhari Oratmangun told reporters after the meeting.
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Djauhari said the five nuclear states — the US, the UK, Russia, China and France — had in general agreed to respect ASEAN nuclear free zone.
Officials have said that respect for the ASEAN nuclear-free zone included not carrying nuclear weapons or material through ASEAN territory.
However, during the talks, China wanted several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on its accession to the treaty.
“We will have a separate MoU with China. The accession protocol will refer to the MoU between ASEAN and China,” said a Foreign Ministry negotiator.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry director for ASEAN security and political affairs Ade Padmon Sarwono said the five countries recently expressed willingness to talk with a regional grouping that possessed a nuclear-free zone treaty.
“Two weeks ago, the P5 countries cosponsored a UN resolution on nuclear-free zones. We will use the momentum to persuade them to respect our treaty,” he said.
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