Global Security Newswire

Foreign ministers and government officials attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum in Indonesia last year. The five recognized nuclear-weapon states are expected at an ASEAN meeting next week to endorse a treaty recognizing Southeast Asia as a nuclear weapon-free zone, Cambodia has indicated (AP Photo/Saul Loeb).

Cambodia has said the world's five nuclear powers are poised on July 12 to formally endorse the 1995 Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Feb. 7).

The development would follow 12 years of discussions aimed at getting China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States to join the pact, which forbids the manufacturing, storage, transfer or use of nuclear weapons in the region. The move is anticipated at a gathering in Phnom Penh of top diplomats from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said Cambodian Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.

"As the chair of 2012 ASEAN, Cambodia is pleased to see all the five recognized nuclear-weapon states to sign the protocol," he said. "Their upcoming signatures reflect their support for the SEANWFZ," the official said (Xinhua News Agency, July 5).