ASEAN leaders unsure about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions

ASEAN leaders are unsure about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions, a regional foreign policy expert said Tuesday.

A documentary produced by Burmese journalists alleged in June that Myanmar, a member of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is developing nuclear weapons.

Myanmar could be purchasing nuclear weapon technology from North Korea, said Tim Huxley, executive director of the Singapore branch of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, but ASEAN members are reluctant to comment on that in "strong terms."

"ASEAN countries aren't sure how to deal with" Myanmar's alleged nuclear ambitions, Huxley said. "If they confront Myanmar, Myanmar will just say they have a right to develop nuclear energy for civil purposes, and they would simply deny any links to North Korea."

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the German PressAgency dpa that nuclear weapons would not be on the agenda of his bilateral meeting with Myanmar officials Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters in Hanoi that there was no consensus among member nations about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions.

"But there is certainly the ASEAN charter and the (South-East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone) treaty, which requires that South-East Asia be free of nuclear weapons," Pitsuwan said.

The 1997 treaty binds ASEAN countries to a pledge against the use, manufacture or transport of nuclear weapons. They also promised not allow other countries to develop or manufacture nuclear weapons inside their borders.

A spokesman for US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last week that the United States was concerned about a lack of transparency surrounding Myanmar's "commercial interactions" with North Korea. Clinton plans to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi on Thursday and Friday.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.