REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, AMBON -- Indonesia continues to push for efforts to realize a Southeast Asia that is free of nuclear weapons.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi emphasized that states owning nuclear weapons must accede to the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) treaty.

At the SEANWFZ Commission meeting in Manila on Aug 3, the minister asserted that after 22 years since the treaty was signed by 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), no nuclear weapon state has acceded to the Protocol of the Agreement.

"Accession to the treaty's protocol is very important to ensure that 600 million people in Southeast Asia are free from the threat of nuclear weapons," Marsudi remarked through a press release received by Antara, Saturday.

To this end, Indonesia encourages the ASEAN to step up its approach to nuclear weapon states to overcome barriers in accession to the SEANWFZ protocol.

The ASEAN has a matrix that encompasses various positions of the ASEAN and the difficulties faced by nuclear weapon states to accede to the protocol.

"I propose that the ASEAN can again increase the intensity of communication with nuclear weapon states to discuss the way forward," Marsudi emphasized.

The SEANWFZ Commission Meeting, which initiated the 50th ASEAN foreign ministers meeting, is a ministerial-level mechanism to oversee the implementation of the SEANWFZ Protocol.

The meeting agreed to extend the SEANWFZ Action Plan to strengthen the implementation of the agreement, which ends in 2017 for the next five years. 

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