Indonesia Seeks Finalized Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Jakarta Globe, Vita A.D. Busyra, May 20, 2014

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

Jakarta. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has called for bolstering trust across Asia Pacific as part of the push to get the nuclear test ban treaty ratified throughout the region, amid reports of North Korea being closer than previously thought to developing a nuclear missile.

“It’s essentially [about] how we can maintain that momentum toward the promotion of our common objective of nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation,” Marty said on Tuesday at a three-day regional conference on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), held in Jakarta.

“How can we, as government, create a constant irreversible march in the effort toward our common goals? Back in 2012, Indonesian believed that by ratifying the CTBT, we could be party of momentum-generating efforts.”

But a lack of trust between countries, stemming from various conflicts and tensions in the region, had undermined that momentum, Marty said.

“Future generations will look back and ask why did we miss that strategic opportunity? And I see this, in all areas, how lack of trust [arises] because it’s not confronted in a more urgent manner,” he said.

“This has quickly become more serious, affecting the entire [set of] conditions that would be needed for us to make progress, in this case, for instance, on the nuclear agenda.”

Marty said he was confident that getting all countries in the Southeast Asia, Pacific and Far East (SEAPFE) region to ratify the CTBT was not a matter of surmounting technical hurdles, but of states’ willingness to do so amid heightened tensions throughout the region.

“It’s about how we put ourselves in the position of those who are yet to sign and ratify the treaty, to understand their world view, to try to address their concerns so that we can move from where we are to where we want to be,” the minister said.

Indonesia has signed and ratified the CTBT, but other countries, including known nuclear powers, have not.

China is a signatory to the treaty but has not ratified it, while India, Pakistan and North Korea have not signed on.

These countries, along with Indonesia, are part of the Annex 2 States, a group of 44 countries worldwide that had nuclear power or research reactors at the time of a 1996 disarmament conference.

For the test ban treaty to enter into force, all signatory countries are obliged to ratify it. But five countries — the United States, China, Israel, Iran and Egypt — have not done so.

Indonesia was the latest country to ratify it, in February 2012, and has been leading efforts in Asia Pacific to get the rest of the Annex 2 countries to do the same.

“Indonesia has proven its great leadership and we want that to be spread around,” Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of the CTBT Organization’s preparatory commission, said at Tuesday’s conference.

Zerbo said that as long as the five signatory Annex 2 countries and three non-signatory ones refused to ratify the CTBT, “the goal has not been reached.”

“We urgently need the last remaining eight to follow Indonesia’s lead,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said he was convinced that Indonesian’s act of ratification would encourage the eight other holdouts to sign and/or ratify the treaty.

Marty warned of a growing political and security constraints unless all respective countries ratified the treaty soon.

“I fear that if we don’t work with haste, or with a great sense of urgency, that the political window of opportunity will shut and we will found ourselves in a game-changing situation,” he said.

Zerbo called for strong leadership from regional powers to help reduce the tensions that were keeping standoffish states from signing or ratifying the treaty.

“A strong leadership position can create a momentum [...] by being alive to the role the treaty can play in reducing international tensions. Signature and ratification of the CTBT will go a long way toward building confidence concerning a nation’s nuclear ambitions,” he said.

“I call for a moratorium on nuclear testing to be at the center of such negotiations, paving the way for eventual signature and ratification of the treaty. [...] I believe, with a little push, we can move closer to universalization in this region, thereby setting an example for other regions.”

Zerbo said the treaty had concrete civilian and scientific benefits, including the development of peaceful applications from nuclear technology. “To build peace and safeguard the world against the threats posed by the most devastating kind of weapons, the world needs the full participation of countries in the Southeast Asian, Pacific and Far East region,” he said.

Marty said he had “high expectations that the regional conference can create positive momentum for the ratification of the CTBT to make further progress.”

The conference, attended by delegates from 21 countries as well as the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, the UN Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament and the European Union, kicked off as experts warned that North Korea might be closer than previously thought to putting a nuclear warhead on a missile.

Experts say the delivery vehicle of choice for the North’s first nuclear warhead would most likely be the mid-range Rodong missile, which has a design range of 1,300 kilometers.

“Given the number of years that North Korea has been working at it, my assessment is that they can mount a warhead on a Rodong,” Mark Fitzpatrick, director of non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said on Tuesday as reported by Agence France-Presse. “Also, there is no doubt that Pakistan can mount a nuclear warhead on its version of the Rodong [...] It is reasonable to assume that North Korea can too. How reliable the warhead would be is another question.”

Kim Tae-woo, the former head of South Korea’s state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, who also served as head of research at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said separately that “the field deployment of a nuclear missile is imminent.”

North Korea earlier this month threatened to carry out a fourth nuclear test.

Additional reporting from AFP

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