The annual Meeting of the Commission for the Treaty on the Southeast
Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) was held in the Cambodian
capital city of Phnom Penh on July 8.
Vietnamese
Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh attended the event, which was convened
on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM).
At the meeting, regional top diplomats reviewed the
implementation of the Plan of Action to strengthen the SEANWEFZ Treaty
during the 2007-2012 period.
ASEAN Foreign Ministers
applauded major outcomes in the four key areas, including the
finalisation of negotiations with recognised nuclear-weapon states on
their participation in the Protocol of the SEANWFZ Treaty, the
enhancement of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,
integration of nuclear safety into cooperation between ASEAN and its
partners such as Russia, the US and Japan as well as a number of other
nuclear free zones across the world, and the promotion of SEANWFZ’s role
and contributions at multilateral nuclear security and safety forums.
ASEAN member countries praised Vietnam’s accession
to the Convention on Nuclear Safety in 2010, Indonesia’s ratification
of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 2011 and Cambodia ’s
participation in the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear
Accident and the Convention on Nuclear Safety.
The
ASEAN ministers highlighted SEANWFZ as the regional grouping’s important
tool to maintain peace, security and nuclear weapon free status in the
region.
They stressed the need for ASEAN member
countries to uphold SEANWFZ’s values and others cooperative tools such
as the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), the Declaration on the
Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF), to further contribute to ASEAN’s common goal for peace, security,
stability, cooperation and development in the region.
On the same day, ASEAN Foreign Ministers also discussed the building
the ASEAN Community and the implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the
TAC.
Leaders of the Association of South East Asian
Nations or ASEAN signed the SEANWFZ Treaty in Bangkok, Thailand, in
December 1995 and it took effect two years later.-VNA