INDONESIA called on countries not to allow the Asia-Pacific region to become another battleground amid the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
Indonsian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi revived calls for nuclear weapons states to join ASEAN’s regional nuclear-free zone.
In December 1995, ASEAN member states signed the Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), also known as the Bangkok Treaty, which declared Southeast Asia’s commitment to be a nuclear-weapon-free zone.
However, none of the world’s leading nuclear powers have signed the treaty.
Marsudi warned that Southeast Asia is just “one miscalculation away from apocalypse” and revived calls for world powers to sign the pact and keep the region free from nuclear weapons.
The latest meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers mainly focused on getting the five nuclear weapon states — the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China — to sign the treaty.
Indonesia’s top diplomat made the remark during the two-day 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held earlier this week in Jakarta.
A senior Thai official last week hailed China as a potential model to other nuclear states after Beijing said it is ready to sign the protocol of the 1995 Treaty of Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free-Zone without any conditions.
