SEANWFZ Contributes to Regional Peace and Security

On July 8, 2012, the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; it is the annual conference of SEANWFZ members on the occasion of the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting (AMM). Vietnam’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh attended the meeting.

 

The Ministers hailed the important results achieved within 5 years on the implementation of the Plan of Action to strengthen the SEANWFZ Treaty in the 2007-2012 period in four key fields: the finalization of negotiations with nuclear weapons countries on their participation in the Protocol of the SEANWFZ Treaty; enhancement of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); integration of nuclear safety into cooperation content between ASEAN and its partners like the Russian Federation, the US, Japan as well as other nuclear free zones across the world; promotion of the Treaty’s role and contributions at multi-lateral nuclear security and safety forums. ASEAN member countries also praised Vietnam’s accession to the Convention on Nuclear Safety in 2010, Indonesia’s approval of the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2011, and Cambodia’s participation in the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and Convention on Nuclear Safety in 2010. Based on the above outcomes, ASEAN Foreign Ministers agreed to continue implementing the Plan of Action until 2017.

 

The Ministers highly praised the SEANWFZ Treaty as an ASEAN’s important tool to maintain peace, security and nuclear weapon-free status in the region. To enhance the effectiveness of the SEANWZ, in recent years, ASEAN has conducted consultations for countries having nuclear weapons to participate in the Protocol of SEANWFZ Treaty in order to demonstrate their commitment to the Treaty. After the process of actively promoting, ASEAN and countries having nuclear weapons have basically completed the negotiation process, continued for the consultation and taken necessary steps to prepare for those countries having nuclear weapons to participate in the Protocol of the Treaty. The ASEAN Ministers emphasized the need to promote SEANWFZ value as long as other ASEAN tools of political and security cooperation such as Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in order to contribute more to the overall objectives of ASEAN for peace, security, stability, cooperation and development in the region.

 

On the same day, ASEAN Foreign Ministers met with the representative of the ASEAN Inter- Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). At the meeting, the Ministers welcomed the efforts and achievements of AICHR in promoting regional cooperation on human rights, especially the drafting of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). Directing the work of AICHR in the next times, the Ministers emphasized that AICHR should actively promote cooperation activities contributing to the joint work of ASEAN, especially the process of building an ASEAN community towards people in 2015.

 

ASEAN Foreign Ministers also discussed the building the ASEAN Community and the implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the TAC.