Jakarta. The progress is slow in bringing nuclear-possessing countries to promise that they would keep the Southeast Asian region nuke-free, Indonesia told fellow ASEAN members.

Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi is currently in Laos to discuss the bloc’s matters with her ASEAN counterparts. The group’s Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) pact became one of the major themes in the discussions.

The treaty aims to create a peaceful Southeast Asia region that is free from nuclear weapons. The pact has legally binding protocols for the five nuclear-weapon states -- China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US -- to sign and ratify. By signing, these five countries would promise to not use or threaten to use nukes in the region. Although the SEANWFZ dates back to 1995, no nuclear weapon state has signed the protocol so far.

“There has not been any significant progress from the nuclear-weapon states in regards to the SEANWFZ protocol,” Retno said in a press statement on Wednesday evening.

Amidst the sluggish progress, Indonesia thinks it is about time that ASEAN should involve experts in their efforts. 

“Indonesia suggests that we should appoint experts, including legal experts from every ASEAN country, to give their inputs in the next SEANWFZ Commission meeting with a clear and measurable timeline,” Retno said. 

Of all five nuclear-weapon states, China appears to be the one who is the closest to signing the pact. Last year, Malaysia’s then-Foreign Affairs Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said that China had given its word to sign the protocol “unconditionally”.

Kadir made the remarks on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministerial meeting in Jakarta last July. Not long after Kadir’s statement, Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn also dropped a similar hint that Beijing had shown a “strong desire” to sign the SEANWFZ protocol. But again, China has yet to keep its promise.

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