The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will resume direct consultations with five nuclear-weapon states in the first week of August in Geneva, ending a nearly decade-long suspension of the talks, Asean officials said.
The decision was made at the conclusion of an Asean Working Group meeting on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty, part of the Asean meeting and related talks from July 16-23.
According to the officials, nuclear disarmament experts from Asean countries are expected to launch the new round of "direct informal consultation" with the five nuclear-weapon states to resolve outstanding issues that have barred the nuclear powers from ratifying the 1995 treaty.
The five nuclear-weapon states, simply called P5, are Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
"For the past 10 years, we did not reach yet a common position among the Asean parties to SEANWFZ in preparing the accession of the nuclear weapon states to the SEANWFZ treaty," I Gusti Ngurah Swajaya, Indonesian permanent representative in Asean, told a press conference yesterday.
The achievement of a common position among the Asean nations is a major step, while talks initiated by the United States among it, Russia, the United Kingdom and France, would hopefully also yield progress, he added.
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China has openly said it is ready to sign the protocol of the treaty.
The treaty binds the members not to develop, manufacture, acquire, possess or have control over nuclear weapons, nor to station or transport nuclear weapons by any means.
Its protocol calls on the nuclear-weapon states to respect the status of the zone and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states party to the treaty.
The protocol is open to signing by the five nuclear-weapon states, but none of them has so far signed.
An Asean official expressed hope that the parties would be able to expedite the negotiations.
"For Asean countries, we prefer not to amend the treaty as it will require a lengthy parliamentary process in each member states. We hope to be able to settle the issue with a political approach," the official said.
The nuclear-weapon states, except China, earlier said they cannot sign the treaty in its present form, mainly because of the protocol's inclusion of continental shelves and exclusive economic zones stretching up to 200 nautical miles from the land of signatory states.