It is correct to condemn nations that are trying to develop nuclear arsenals, conducting tests and nuclear detonations, test-firing long-range nuclear delivery systems such as missiles. But there is something wrong when countries that have long been testing nuclear weapons use and drumbeat global fears in order to hide their efforts to enhance their own nuclear weapons.

PressenzaManila, 2009-08-23Hiroshima: Aug. 6, 1945. Nagasaki: Aug. 9, 1945. Both dates are remembered as the apocalypse of these two cities, when the first nuclear bombs developed by the United States were exploded, decimating their civilian populations. It was also the beginning of the double-standard practice of nuclear weapons states and big powers with regard to smaller nations seeking to become nuclear powers.

It is correct for the United Nations and the international community to condemn nations that are trying to develop their nuclear arsenals and capability by conducting tests conducted with actual nuclear detonations and explosions, or by test-firing long-range nuclear delivery systems such as missiles. The world will not get closer to global peace and prosperity when nations like Iran and North Korea conduct atomic test detonations and missile testing.

But there is something wrong when countries that have long been testing nuclear weapons – like the United States, Russia, China and Israel – use and drumbeat global fears of these smaller nations, in order to hide their continuing efforts to enhance their own nuclear weapons.

The Federation of American Scientists (2009) estimates that the United States has 9,400 nuclear warheads today, while the US allies like Israel and Pakistan have at least 80 and 60, respectively.

When the United States and its allies criticize countries that aspire to be nuclear powers, they invoke the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and obviously want to preserve their monopoly of nuclear weapons. And they use this monopoly to blackmail and intimidate small countries.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 23, 2009, the United States is again scheduled to test –fire its own Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara, California into the Pacific Ocean. The ICBMs are the most destructive first-strike, long-range nuclear missiles in the US arsenal. Their target is the Ronald Reagan Missile Testing Range in Kwajelain Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific.

The US and other western governments, through their top diplomats and propaganda media like CNN and BBC, have been screaming their hearts out against nuclear weapons development and missile testing by nations like Iran and North Korea, but they have been quiet about the recent and previous long-range missile tests conducted by the United States in the Pacific.

Only last June 29, Minuteman III missiles were fired by the US Strategic Command from the US continental mainland into Pacific targets 4,800 miles away. These tests are part of the so-called Missile Defense (MD) “shield” system of “first-strike” installations, which the US has put in place in the Pacific.

The experience during the Cold War has only proven that the argument of “nuclear deterrent for self-defense” is a sham and merely contributes to a dangerous, never-ending nuclear arms race. Why does the UN impose sanctions only against North Korea and Iran, but not against the United States? Here, in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (SEA-NWFZT) was signed almost 14 years ago, and yet we still have to see it enforced.

As the Philippines is the only country in the region and the world that has adopted a nuclear weapons-free policy in its 1987 (Article II. Sec. 8), it is no small feat that this policy has now become a regional aspiration as expressed in a formal treaty signed by the 10-member Asean. It is therefore imperative for the Asean member-states to now enforce and implement the spirit and letter of the treaty and put more muscle into the SEA-NWFZT Commission which Asean established a few years ago in Manila.

The following measures are suggested:

1.Encourage the nine other Asean states to adopt nuclear weapons-free policies with implementing rules and regulations, in their constitutions (like the Philippines), or through legislation (like New Zealand).

2.Disallow port visits or entry into the territorial waters of Asean member countries by foreign naval or military vessels unless they certify to the hose Asean country that they are not carrying nuclear weapons or radio-active material to be used as components of nuclear weapons.

3.Asean should be informed of the movements within the region of nuclear-armed vessels or fleets – whether they belong to the United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Russia, etc. – whenever such vessels enter the South China Sea. This is to secure the maritime security of Asean’s marine life on which many Asean peoples depend on for their livelihood.

4.Finally, Sean should tap the expertise of non-state entities and non-government organizations in monitoring and implementing the SEA-NFWZT. Only then will Asean’s anti-nuclear weapons treaty make an impact on efforts to attain genuine global peace. Asean should not accept the nuclear weapons double-standards practices by the United States and other big powers.

Roland G. Simbulan is a Centennial Professorial Awardee of the University of the Philippines where he is a full professor in Development Studies and Public Management. He is a senior fellow at the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG). For the past several decades, Prof. Simbulan has also been a resource person for the Philippine Congress on the issue of US military bases in the Philippines.

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