The fourth Meeting of the Commission for the Treaty on the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) was held in Bali on July 18, with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as Chair.

The meeting discussed achievements reached by the SEANWFZ Commission and reviewed the implementation of the Plan of Action (PoA) to strengthen SEANWFZ.

The participants heard a report on the progress in implementing the plan of action prepared by the ASEAN Secretariat in coordination with the ASEAN Chair.

They highlighted activities to deploy the PoA that had been carried out since the last SEANWFZ Commission meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2010, including formal and informal meetings between Indonesia and representatives of the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) in Jakarta and facilitating direct consultations between ASEAN and NWS experts prior to the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September this year.

The meeting also identified possible activities to strengthen implementation of the PoA in the future.

Senior ASEAN leaders also touched on prospects of cooperation between SEANWFZ and other nuclear weapon-free regions, ASEAN’s commitment on maintaining the development of SEANWFZ and international recognition through the submission of the UN Resolution on SEANWFZ to the 66 th UN General Assembly.

The new Chair of the SEANWFZ Commission was elected, which, according to usual practice, was the Chair of ASEAN.

The meeting was within the framework of bilateral and multilateral meetings of ASEAN, in order to prepare for ASEAN and East Asia summits at the end of this year./.