Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Enforcing the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Treaty

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TWENTY years have passed since the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Treaty (SEA-NWFZT) was signed, on Dec. 15, 1995 in Bangkok by all the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. Designated as the "Bangkok Treaty", the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Treaty was entered into force (EIF) on March 28, 1997.

The first Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty after the Cold War, the Bangkok Treaty is considered a model for regional de-nuclearization. According to Dr. Hiro Umebayashi, Director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition of Nagasaki University, this is because "it applies not just to territories but includes in its coverage Exclusive Economic Zones and Continental Shelves." It also prohibits the dumping or discharge of radioactive material or nuclear waste in its area of coverage. This is why, predictably, even today, all the five Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) which include Russia, the U.S., China, U.K. and France refuse to sign its Protocols. But are the states of Southeast Asia, genuine Nuclear Weapons-Free states today?

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 The Bangkok Treaty emphasized ASEAN's desire in signing and ratifying a formal treaty against nuclear weapons with the following goal:

"Towards general and complete nuclear disarmament of nuclear weapons and the promotion of international peace and security." The Treaty, in its preamble, proclaimed "ASEAN's aims to protect the region from environmental pollution and the hazards posed by dumping of radioactive waste and other radioactive materials."

The concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone was explored in the mid-80s by ASEAN on the assumption that they will have 'mutual assurance that member states do not acquire nuclear weapons in the future.' This was to be an internal goal of ASEAN. On the other hand, as an external goal, "ASEAN wants to prevent the Nuclear Weapons States to introduce nuclear weapons in the area."

Despite its existence for the past twenty years since 1995, we can identify four provisions and issues in the Bangkok Treaty why Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) have refused to sign the Protocols to the treaty:

1. Transit rights and port/airfield visits thru compliance mediation;
2. Sovereignty of states over EEZs and continental shelves;
3. Negative Security Arrangements by NWS treaty protocols.

In principle, all of these issues pertain to the non-access to be given Nuclear Weapons States of their military forces with nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion in the territories and waters as defined by the SEA-NWFZ Treaty.