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Excerpted from the Inventory of International Organizations
and Regimes 2001 published by the CNS International Organizations and Nonproliferation Project. A complete PDF copy of the 2000 edition of the Inventory is available in the Publications section of the NTI website.
Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Bangkok)
Opened for signature: December 15, 1995.
Entered into force: March 28,
1997.
Number of Parties: 10 full members - Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and
Viet Nam.
None of the nuclear-weapon states has yet signed the Protocols, largely due
to U.S. and French objections regarding the unequivocal nature of security
assurances and over the definitions of territory (including exclusive economic
zones).
Duration: Treaty is of a permanent nature and shall remain in
force indefinitely.
Organs: Commission for the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free
Zone, Executive Committee.
Obligations: not to develop, manufacture or otherwise
acquire, possess or have control over nuclear weapons; station nuclear weapons;
or test or use nuclear weapons anywhere inside or outside the treaty zone; not
to seek or receive any assistance in this; not to take any action to assist or
encourage the manufacture or acquisition of any nuclear explosive device by any
state; not to provide source or special fissionable materials or equipment to
any NNWS, or any NWS unless subject to safeguards agreements with the IAEA; to
prevent in the territory of states parties the stationing of any nuclear
explosive device; to prevent testing of any nuclear explosive device; not to
dump radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter at sea anywhere within the
zone, and to prevent the dumping of radioactive wastes and other radioactive
matter by anyone in the territorial sea of the states parties.
Treaty zone: the territories, continental shelves, and EEZ of
the States Parties within the Zone.
Verification: by providing reports and exchanging
information, and by the application of IAEA safeguards.
Visits by foreign ships and aircraft to ports and airfields, transit of
airspace by foreign aircraft and navigation by foreign ships carrying nuclear
weapons are left to the discretion of states parties.
The Protocol is open for signature by China, France, Russia, United Kingdom
and United States. They would undertake to respect the Treaty and not to
contribute to any act, which constitutes a violation of the Treaty or its
Protocol by States Parties to them. They would also undertake not to use or
threaten to use nuclear weapons against any State Party to the Treaty and not to
use or threaten to use nuclear weapons within the Southeast Asia Nuclear
Weapon-Free Zone.
SEANWFZ Commission: From 23 to 24 July 1999, the ASEAN
Foreign Ministers convened the Commission of the SEANWFZ Treaty for the first
time. The Commission ordered the preparation of the draft rules of procedure and
initiation of all necessary actions in compliance with the Treaty, including
consultations with the nuclear-weapon states, the International Atomic Energy
Agency and other related bodies.
The Commission meeting was held in conjunction with the ASEAN Regional
Forum (ARF) meeting in Singapore, Reportedly, at this meeting, China agreed to
sign the Protocol, as did India. (Since India does not fall within the
definition of an NWS as stipulated in the NPT, if the contracting parties accept
an Indian signature to the Protocol they might be in technical violation of both
the NPT and the Bangkok treaties.)
Background: The notion of a SEANWFZ dates back to 27 November
1971, when the original five members of ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur signed a
Declaration on a [ASEAN] Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN). This
treaty constitutes a major step forward in achieving a Zone of Peace, Freedom
and Neutrality in Southeast Asia (ZOPFAN), as elaborated in the Kuala Lumpur
Declaration of November 1971.
The SEANWFZ Treaty includes two elements that go beyond other existing NWFZ
agreements: (1) the zone of application also includes the continental shelves
and exclusive economic zones of the contracting parties; and (2) the negative
security assurance implies a commitment by the NWS not to use nuclear weapons
against any state contracting or protocol party within the zone of application.
In other aspects, the SEANWFZ contains all the standard obligations,
prohibitions, and verification and control measures found in previous zonal
treaties.
Thus far the NWS have not signed the Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty due to
their objections over the inclusion of continental shelves and exclusive
economic zones, and to the restriction not to use nuclear weapons within the
zone or from within the zone against targets outside the zone.
The Bangkok Treaty does not have any designated Secretariat, given the informal
style of ASEAN, but the Commission at the level of foreign ministers and the
working group of Senior Officials will work to promote the full implementation
of the zone.
No specific target date has been identified for the implementation of the SEANWFZ,
though an ASEAN Vision 2020 adopted in December 1997 envisioned that by that
year all of the NWS would have adhered to the protocol, and that the region
could be free of all mass destruction weapons.
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