Indonesia calls on France to sign SEANWFZ Treaty

Jakarta, The Gulf Observer: Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called on France to sign the protocol to the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty in order to maintain peace and stability in the region.

Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, in Paris on Friday.

During the meeting, she discussed some issues, including ASEAN stability and the Indo-Pacific.

France, along with China, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the US, is one of the nuclear-weapon states that the ASEAN is focusing on for signing the protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty.

Earlier, during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta last week, the bloc had urged the five nuclear-weapon states to accede to the protocol.

The meeting was attended by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. Meanwhile, China was represented by Wang Yi, a top diplomat, who serves as director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.

During the meeting with Colonna, Marsudi also stated that any minilateralism in the region should support peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

Earlier, this year, France had agreed to form minilateral agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India.

Several minilaterals formed in the region comprise Quadrilateral, or Quad, that includes India, the US, Japan, and Australia, and the BRICS that consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

“I emphasize that the voice of the Global South must be heard more. I said that Indonesia and France could become a bridge between the Global North and the Global South,” she remarked.

Global South is a term that comprises developing countries in the regions of Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, while the Global North refers to developed regions in Northern America, Europe, and East Asia.