19th ASEAN Summit

The 19th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, gathering heads of state or government from 10 ASEAN member states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam – was held in Bali (Indonesia) on November 17–19. The summit, themed "ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations", is chaired by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
After some 12 months of intense meetings and activities, which left a new landmark in ASEAN's history, Indonesia handed over the chair of the group to Cambodia today.
Visibly proud of what Indonesia's achievements over the past year, President Yudhoyono handed over the symbolic gavil to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The simple but dignified ceremony was heralded by a short video of the highlights of ASEAN 2011.
For many delegates in the audience – particularly the exhausted staff of the ASEAN Secretariat – it was a moment of nostalgia, relief, and pride, as they were reminded of the activities which they had slogged for.
Bali Declaration
Leaders of the 19th ASEAN Summit stressed high political determination and the allocation of necessary resources to implement on schedule the process to build the ASEAN Community on three pillars. They also stressed the fully implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, which is important in the process to build a consolidated ASEAN Community by 2015, considering it a leading priority in the cooperation within ASEAN and between ASEAN and its partners.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked ASEAN to continue boosting cooperation and proper investment in such fields as narrowing the gap of development, promoting security, energy, and food security as well as boosting cooperation to effectively deal with emerging challenges, namely climate change, maritime security, environment, the sustainable use of water sources of rivers, especially the Mekong river to contributing to sustainable and uniform development in the region.
On ASEAN Connectivity, the PM stressed the significance of the full implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity in the process of building the ASEAN Community by 2015, saying that this continues to be the top priority in ASEAN cooperation as well as cooperation between ASEAN and its partner countries.
The Vietnamese prime minister added: “The group needs to efficiently implement agreements and commitments on trade liberalization, facilitation of goods and services transactions, investment and people-to-people exchanges, an initial study on implementation of ASEAN Travel Cards for ASEAN citizens, as well as special immigration desks for regional citizens at international border gates of the member countries.”
The Bali Summit addressed a broad range of issues impacting the region such as global economy, G20 Summit, disaster management, climate change, food and energy security, regional integration, among others, and adopted several outcome documents, including the Bali Declaration on ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations.
Foreign Ministers’ Meet
The ASEAN foreign ministers have agreed on the need for talks with Beijing over the South China Sea dispute.
After the meeting, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that ASEAN seeks dialogue with China over the maritime issue. He also said the foreign ministers were encouraged by Myanmar's attempts at reforms, as Napyidaw says it will release more prisoners under an amnesty deal.
ASEAN-UN Engagement
At the fourth ASEAN-UN Summit, the ASEAN leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reviewed the implementation of the decisions of the previous summit, which took place in Hanoi in October 2010.
The ASEAN leaders spoke highly of the support of the UN and its agencies for ASEAN in building the Community, realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), strengthening regional connectivity, narrowing the development gaps and boosting the development of subregions, especially the Mekong Subregion, improving the capacity to cope with climate change and natural disasters, reduce poverty and prevent diseases as well as boosting the reasonable and sustainable exploitation and use of water resources.

Southeast Asia: Location of Transit of Nuclear Weapon Components

The Southeast Asian region is believed to be the transfer location of various components which can be used in the development of nuclear weapons by nuclear proliferation supporters in the world. If the government is not vigilant and does not impose strict regulations to govern it, the ideal of global nuclear weapons disarmament will be more difficult to achieve.
This opinion was asserted at a seminar entitled "Nuclear Energy, Nonproliferation and Strategic Trade Management: The Nexus of Security and Economic Management" in Jakarta on 19 July 2011. The seminar was held by the US Embassy in Jakarta and the Center for International Trade and Security (CITS) of the University of Georgia, US.
According to CITS senior analyst, Seema Gahlaut, in a number of disclosed trade plots of nuclear weapon components, it was discovered that some Southeast Asian countries has become the transit points or even the producers of the components. The most famous case is the disclosure of the nuclear proliferation network of Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Khan was considered as the father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons after he successfully developed the centrifuge technology for the uranium enrichment process. That technology was then transferred to North Korea, and had allegedly been shipped to Iran and Libya.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
According to Gahlaut, some of the centrifuge components such as the steel material for the rotor and the cap were actually produced by Singaporean and Malaysian companies. In another case it was found out that components of strategic weapons technology which were prohibited by European countries to be shipped to China were actually shipped to that country through Malaysia.
Gahlaut emphasized that what happened in Malaysia could possibly happen in Indonesia as well. She said: ‘After Singapore imposed stricter (export-import) regulations in 2004, the proliferation network moved to other countries in Southeast Asia.’
In those cases, according to Gahlaut, the country used as a transit route or companies producing such components did not realize that the products could be used in the assembling process of illegal weapons of mass destruction.
In addition to the lack of technical knowledge among law enforcers in the concerned country, the components also have other usages in the civilian fields such as in medicine, so that they can pass the customs service.
In the Asher Karni proliferation network case in 2004, the transferred device was a triggered spark gap. This component can be used not only in a machine to break kidney stones in hospitals, but it can also serve as a detonator for nuclear bombs.
Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy
From the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bali, the South East Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (SEAN WFZ) agreement was agreed upon to not only bind ASEAN member countries, but also countries possessing nuclear weapons that want to show their forces in South East Asia.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that an understanding emerged that the agreement should also regulate the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This is in line with the three basic pillars of the nuclear issue, namely nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons non-proliferation, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.